E 

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WOODROW WILSON'S 






HON. JOHN W WESCOn 




Book 



GopyrightN". 



CDRO^IGHT DEPOSm 



WOODROW WILSON'S 
ELOQUENCE 



WOODROW WILSON'S 
ELOQUENCE 



HON. JOHN W. WESCOn 






Copyright 1922, By Ron. John W. Wesoott 







1 vi^^ 



©CI.A677C21 







Dedication 

In Memory of my Mother, whose Face was 

the Glow of Truth, which is the 

Substance of Eloquence. 



Introduction 

In the wilds of Canada, where the long, low call 
of the moose ; the weird, uncanny cry of the loon ; 
the bark of the cowardly wolf in quest of prey, and 
the multitudinous song of birds bring the mind in 
intimate association with the beauty and grandeur 
of Nature, and where the reality of things is borne 
in upon one with resistless force, is found the fulfill- 
ment of a promise, made some years ago, to Mr. 
Solomon B. Griffin, then editor of The Springfield 
Republican, to set forth my views of Woodrow 
Wilson's eloquence, and, by necessary implication, 
some knowledge of his personality. 

The purpose of this brochure is, therefore, first, 
to explicate the nature and function of real elo- 
quence; next, briefly to state the evolution of my 
conception. 

Not without some hesitation, I have appended to 
the discussion my two speeches nominating Woodrow 
Wilson for the presidency in 1912 and 1916. They 
were composed under stress, while events were 
transpiring in the midst of which I took such part 
as one does who finds himself unexpectedly involved 
in some glorious and scarce believable emergency. 
Time and succeeding occurrences have verified the 
accuracy of their analysis of Woodrow Wilson's 
character to such a degree, and the prophecy of the 
second speech, thought by some, at the time of its 
delivery, to be mere hj^perbole, has been (and I 
believe is further to be) so remarkably fulfilled, that 



the repetition of them now may not prove uninter- 
esting to any one who may find merit in the ensuing 
reflections. Then, too, they are examples, or intended 
to be, of application of the principles herein discussed. 
They are genuine expressions, at any rate, of the 
influence of the man whose eloquence of character, 
as well as of speech, I have undertaken to explain. 

The imperfections of the arrangement and phrase- 
ology of the exposition, must be charged to the 
conditions under which it was prepared. Seeking 
rest, with a mind weary of human struggle, yet 
buoyed with the assurance that "good will be the 
final goal of ill," my promise is kept in admiration 
and love of President Wilson, and in the wish that 
the young men of America, whom I yearned to join 
in arms quite as fully as I did in spirit, on their 
sublime crusade under his remarkable leadership, may 
appropriate his philosophy of life by conforming 
their efforts to a determination to solve their every 
problem correctly and to make that the secret of their 
eloquence. 

John W. Wescott. 

August, 1919. 



Woodrow Wilson's Eloquence 



CHAPTER I. 
Progress 

The deathless question, is, whether, innate in 
man, there resides a faculty forever driving him to 
a better civilization. The optimist answers aflSrma- 
tively; the pessimist negatively. Optimism and 
pessimism may be regarded as the two great distin- 
guishing states of human society. Optimism is the 
product of good health, sound thinking and moral 
conduct. Pessimism is the result of disordered 
health, incorrect thinking and immoral purposes. 

A quick glance at human progress will be useful. 
Roughly speaking, there are two admeasurements of 
man's growth: the one material, the other spiritual 
and moral. Beginning with the stone age, men lived 
in holes in the ground, in clefts in the rocks. They 
were in a state of utter savagery. They were sub- 
servient to one law alone, the law of violent and 
uncompromising existence. They had no ornament, 
except the skins of wild beasts. Their instruments 
were clubs and stones. Follow this same race of 
beings into millions of modern homes, thousands of 
cities, tens of thousands of towns and villages, num- 
berless structures of beauty and grandeur, countless 
varieties of dress and ornamentation, and we will get 
a vivid conception of its material progress. See man 



* WooDRow Wilson's Eloquence 

again, emerging from a state of brutality and 
remorseless savagery, erecting churches, libraries, 
hospitals, school houses, harnessing the forces of 
nature to his bidding, causing the earth to multiply 
and sustain his life, devising innumerable means for 
protecting the weak, expending his genius in philan- 
thropic institutions, and we get an impressive view 
of his spiritual and moral progress. What forces, in 
combination and inter-play, produce the stupendous 
resultant called civilization? 

First, is the love of existence. Merely to exist is 
to know some measure of pleasure and happiness. 
Secondly, the nervous system is so organized as to 
compel the human animal to avoid pain and seek 
pleasure. Pain, in a large way, is the educator of the 
race. Thirdly, selfishness, ugly as it seems to most 
minds, has always been and forever will be, one of 
the propelling forces in progress. To exist is to be 
selfish, since to exist is to deprive others of those 
things which sustain and gratify individual existence. 
Fourthly, the variant conceptions arising from the 
mysterious and unknown realities lying behind all 
natural phenomena. Through the ages they have 
given rise to practices and customs, religious and 
otherwise, which have had wide influence in control- 
ling and shaping the conduct of individuals and 
groups of individuals. Fifthly, intelligence, forever 
expanding and exploiting, may account, and, to some 
minds may fully account for the entire progress of 
the race. In other words, enlightened selfishness, it 
may be argued, embraces within the limit of its action 
all that has been achieved by men. 



WooDEow Wilson's Eloquence ^ 

The difficulty with this view is that it excludes, in 
human affairs, the exercise of sacrifice and service 
either for personal or general good. It eliminates 
the everlasting question: Is it right? Enlightened 
selfishness cannot explain the calmness with which 
the Christian martyrs endured torture and surren- 
dered life for death. It cannot explain the readiness 
with which millions of men have sacrificed themselves 
for a great principle. It cannot explain the innum- 
erable instances of pain and suffering endured that 
others might be free. Nor can it explain the unseen 
sacrifices of parents and friends in behalf of the 
weak and helpless. Nor can it explain the rise of 
the arts and the development of the humanities. 
Enlightened selfishness is well illustrated in the 
growth of vast combinations, commercial and political, 
which have spread want and misery broadcast and 
demanded hecatombs of lives in order that they might 
flourish. 

It becomes necessary, therefore, to nominate that 
capacity in man which presides over and more and 
more directs and determines his every act. It is the 
sixth of the forces which constitute civilization. It 
is the moral faculty. It is the imperative interroga- 
tory : Is it right ? 

If, by some process, there could be extracted from 
civilization the moral activities of men, there would 
be an inevitable recession to aboriginal savagery. 

What is the moral faculty? It is the ability to 
distinguish between right and wrong and do the 
right. What are right and wrong? Right is that 
which produces happiness, pleasure and good. Wrong 



^^ AVooDRow Wilson's Eloquence 

is that which creates human misery and unhappiness. 
Good, happiness, misery and unhappiness, are pal- 
pable conditions. They are perceivable by unculti 
vated as well as by cultivated minds. Hence it is 
that there resides in the common consciousness of 
mankind a sensitive appreciation of those conditions 
which produce happiness and unhappiness, such for 
instance, as peace and war. The institution of chattel 
slavery is a suggestive illustration. Put it in the form 
of a social equation. The wealth, power and intelli- 
gence of the slave owners equalled the ignorance, 
poverty, helplessness and inertia of millions of slaves, 
A large section of our country rested upon the institu- 
tion. Intelligent selfishness would seem to justify the 
continuation of chattel slavery. But the general 
consciousness of the nation saw and felt the vast and 
detailed suffering consequent upon the existence of 
the system. That general consciousness destroyed one 
term of the equation by a great civil conflict. It was 
a magnificent display of moral energy. The result 
was an enormous step in human progress. 

Put what is called commercial slavery in the form 
of an equation. The power and intelligence of 
organized wealth and business energy equals the 
poverty, ignorance, helplessness and distress of the 
world of labor. The spread of intelligence, which 
distinguishes this age from all preceding ages, is 
rapidly disturbing the latter term of the equation. 
The common consciousness of man is thoroughly 
sensitive to social conditions as they now exist. Labor, 
whose back carries civilization, because of the spread 
of intelligence, is devoting itself to the great task of 



WooDROw Wilson's Eloquence ^ 

improving social conditions throughout the world. 
The dogma of intelligent selfishness would preserve 
the equation stated. But the assertion of the moral 
sense of mankind is as certain to disrupt the latter 
term of the equation as it was inevitable that moral 
sense would disrupt the institution of chattel slavery. 
Civilization has slowly evolved a conscience. The 
further evolution of that conscience is sure to mollify 
civilization and ultimately produce a state of affairs 
where efforts and objects will be to conserve the 
health and energy and to secure the happiness of 
every human being. It seems to follow irresistibly 
that the innate quality of moral sense not only 
explains progress, but necessitates an ever better 
civilization and a more equitable social state. The 
time will come when every laborer, business man, 
politician and statesman will find himself concerned 
with the moral question: Is it right? When that 
state is reached civilization will have attained the 
goal which an all-wise Providence seems to have set 
as an objective of human existence. Morality will 
then become the truth and the truth morality. 

From this brief analysis arises a suggestion 
pointing to the nature and function of real eloquence. 

Supporting the conclusion to be drawn, another 
view may be useful. Science and religion, and art 
with its sub-divisions of music, architecture and liter- 
ature, are the absorbing themes of research and 
thought. Science is the leader and corrective of all 
else, because it not only seeks the truth, but, if it be 
science, must be and is the truth. To become scientific, 
therefore, is to become truthful. Music, of all the 



^ "WooDRow Wilson's Eloquence 

arts, is the most scientific, because it is founded on 
mathematics. Its substance is harmony. Music is 
eloquence, that form of eloquence which the mind 
avails itself of to express the inexpressible. Strangely 
enough, as long as music is harmony, it is absolute 
truth. The universal love of music, therefore, is an 
amazing confirmation of the truth stated above. 

Sculpture, painting and literature, carefully 
looked at, disclose the same great reality. The nearer 
they approximate the real, the more potential they 
become. The evolution of these arts from their 
original crudity to substantial perfection furnishes 
more than a mere tendency in the mind to improve ; 
it conclusively shows that men are content with 
nothing short of truth. Similarly with religion. Prom 
the rudest fetishism, through the ages of polytheism, 
and through periods of heartless persecution, cor- 
rected by science and stimulated by the arts, it has 
come to regard the Deity as a Being of mercy, com- 
passion and love. It follows that the evolution of 
science and the arts specified, not only explains the 
progress of the race, but impressively shows that the 
moral faculty alone accounts for the growth of 
civilization. Thus the universal tendency in man to 
seek and know the truth, as the most casual reflection 
compels us to admit, shadows forth the nature of 
eloquence and justifies the conclusion to be reached. 



CHAPTER 11. 

Eloquence 

If one were asked to define science, religion, 
architecture, painting and music, little difficulty 
would be experienced in giving an intelligent and 
quite precise answer. But if one were asked to define 
eloquence, probably no two answers would exhibit the 
same conception and all the answers would serve to 
show, on the one hand, how inadequately the general 
mind considers eloquence, and how, on the other 
hand, it is regarded as a species of legerdemain ; an 
art, the possession of which is desired by all men ; a 
sort of utility sought after by every one ; a rare and 
magical power possessed by few, coveted by all. 

A few definitions, taken at random, will illustrate 
the notion : 

Webster's Dictionary: — "Eloquence is fluent, 
forcible, elegant and persuasive speech in public ; the 
power of expressing strong emotions in striking and 
appropriate language. It ordinarily implies elevated 
and forceful thought, well-chosen language, an easy 
and effective utterance, and an impassioned manner." 

Standard Dictionary: — "The power or act of 
speaking or writing in language expressing strong 
feeling, so as to move or convince ; lofty, impassioned 
and fluent utterance. ' ' 

Funk and Wagnalls :— " The quality of being 
eloquent, or moving the mind; as the eloquence of 
tears." 

[ 9 ] 



^^ WooDEow Wilson's Eloquence 

Macaulay : — ' ' The hearts of men are their books ; 
events are their tutors; great actions are their elo- 
quence. ' ' 

Campbell : — ' ' Song is but the eloquence of truth. ' ' 

Daniel Webster: — "He is an orator that can 
make me think as he thinks and feel as he feels. ' ' 

Cicero: — "As the grace of man is in the mind, 
so is the beauty of the mind in eloquence. ' ' 

Rochefoucauld: — "There is as much eloquence 
in the tone of the voice, in the eyes, and in the air of 
a speaker as in his choice of words." 

Daniel Webster: — "True eloquence does not 
consist in speech. It cannot be brought from far. 
Labor and learning may toil for it in vain. Words 
and phrases may be marshalled in every way, but 
they cannot compass it. It must exist in the man, 
in the subject and in the occasion." 

These definitions, taken indiscriminately from 
many, provoke two comments : First, if they are true, 
eloquence as an art is mere entertainment; secondly, 
if they are true, eloquence is an art that cannot, like 
other arts, forever tend toward the absolute truth. 
While all other arts plainly approach, in their evolu- 
tion, the absolute truth, the art of eloquence forever 
lags behind and remains an indefinite and unscientific 
means of entertainment. 

Much confusion on the subject has also arisen 
from the word eloquence itself. Its etymology, the 
Latin verb loquor, seems to limit eloquence to vocal 



WooDRow Wilson's Eloquence ^^ 

utterance. This conception is too narrow, since it 
would exclude writing, facial expression and action. 
Therefore, to reason correctly about the matter, 
eloquence must embrace voice, facial expression, 
action, writing, and the mind, which finds its expres- 
sion through these agencies. 

The mind is a hidden and unseen force. It can 
communicate itself only by speech, which is the use of 
signs and symbols for the portraiture of mental 
imagery and movement; by actions, the unspoken 
instruments of mental states ; by the expression of the 
features, a division of action; by the totality of 
individual life, a combination of speech, action and 
facial expression ; or by a species of indefinable 
instinct by which one accurately infers the character, 
purpose and mental state of another. There are no 
other conceivable ways of disclosing that strange 
power in man called mind. If, in the use of any or 
all of these instrumentalities, there is dishonesty of 
expression and immorality of purpose, the mind 
cannot contribute to the sum total of human happi- 
ness, but must necessarily, sooner or later, add to the 
sum total of human unhappiness. It follows plainly, 
therefore, that the ordinary conceptions of eloquence 
are unsound. If, with the other arts, eloquence is to 
forever tend to approximate the truth, it must proceed 
upon the same principles as underlie the evolution of 
all progress. 

Since eloquence, expression, whether by speech, 
writing, or action, has for its necessary objects the 
publication of the mind, it must embrace, in its 
broadest, most accurate and generic sense, every 



^2 WOODROW WILSOX'S ELOQUENCE 

agency of mental communication. It may be truth- 
fully said, consequently, that eloquence is the queen 
of the arts, the most majestic and imperious of them 
all. In this sense of the term, it becomes quite evident 
that civilization itself is the product of real eloquence. 

Obviously there can be but one correct solution of 
any problem. Eloquence, either by speech, writing, 
or action must be the means by which the solution of 
every problem is stated or known. This dogma 
applies, not to science exclusivel}', but to all of the 
arts. If the solution fails, there is error in the 
premises and the resulting discomfort must be cor- 
rected by a proper revision effected by irrefragable 
reasoning based upon moral effort. 

The ultimatum, consequently, is to state the 
evolutionary principle of eloquence. The two greatest 
pieces of eloquence in existence are The Lord's 
Prayer and the Ten Commandments. They have 
influenced and controlled millions of men. Why? 
Because they express the truth so clearly that no one 
can question them. They command immediate assent. 
Ordinarily, they are not regarded as eloquence. We 
know nothing, for instance, of the voice, action, or 
manner of Christ, except as they may be inferred 
from his words. But He was the most eloquent Being 
that ever trod the earth. Why? Because everything 
He said and did added to human happiness and 
lessened unhappiness. 

If eloquence is fluent and persuasive speech in 
public, what is to be said of millions of speeches on 
the streets, in marts of trade, in homes, constituting 
the daily life of the world? Each of them involves 



WooDEow Wilson's Eloquence ^^ 

effective and persuasive speech. What is to be said 
of hundreds of thousands of daily acts of sacrifice 
and aid ? What of men who lay down their lives for 
a great cause? If eloquence is the power to make 
one think and feel as another thinks and feels, what 
if the orator, or actor, is absolutely wrong and is 
thoroughly conscious of his error? It is now very 
clear that the ordinary conceptions of eloquence may 
reduce the art to mere pretense, because it may totally 
lack the moral quality known as truth. 

If the reasoning, already gone through, forces a 
just mind to accept morality as the principle of 
progress, as seems inevitable, we have reached a true 
conception of eloquence. Since morality is the truth, 
and, since all the arts manifestly tend towards the 
truth, it follows, by logical necessity, that eloquence, 
which, in its various modes of action, becomes the 
chief of the arts, must have, as its eternal principle, 
morality. And, since morality is obviously the truth 
and the source of human happiness, the true nature 
and function of eloquence is plainly discernible. 
Eloquence is the power to state and act the manifest 
truth. 

I hold that morality is the substance of progress. 
The millions of words and acts, which constitute the 
recurring daily life of the world are an admixture of 
good and bad motives. But the desire for happiness, 
the growing conscience of the race, neutralizes the 
malign and pernicious motives of individuals. This 
generalization again explains progress and proves 
that the moral faculty, which is eloquence, is the 
cause of progress. It again proves the great law that 



1* WooDRow Wilson's Eloquence 

real eloquence consists in one's ability and purpose to 
utter and act manifest truth, in the presence of which 
fraud and chicanery slink away. 

Consider the negative view. Manner cannot, in 
itself, be eloquence. Beauty of language cannot of 
itself be eloquence. Dignity and force cannot of 
themselves constitute eloquence, nor can the occasion, 
nor the subject, nor the man. These are mere inci- 
dents. It is profound error to suppose, a conception 
common to all time, that these accomplishments are 
the substance of eloquence. It is a waste of time and 
energy to contemplate eloquence in the light of these 
attributes, and to undertake to achieve it by their use. 
Entertainment is a fundamentally different thing 
from eloquence. The first indispensable essential is 
the correct solution of the problem about which one 
undertakes to act or speak. If the solution is correct, 
it must be accepted by all; if incorrect, it must be 
rejected by all. If the solution is correct, it commands 
and dominates, because it is the truth. Manner or 
style are of no consequence, except as they may render 
the correct solution more attractive and beautiful. 
If the speaker, writer or actor has not grasped or 
stated the truth, his effort has failed; he has not 
become eloquent. He may have entertained, but he 
has not established the truth. He may have pleased, 
by manner and style, but he has advanced not one 
step. He has added not one thing to the totality 
and beauty of truth, nothing to the sum of human 
comfort and happiness. 

Two illustrations emphasize the point. In the 
days of Prof. Huxley, a brilliant American speaker, 



WooDEow "Wilson's Eloquence ^^ 

at an important function, stirred his hearers to a 
frenzy of excitement. After the applause subsided, 
another American turned to the great British thinker 
and said: "Wasn't that a wonderful speech? What 
do you think of it?" Prof. Huxley's reply was: 
"What did he say?" His interrogator, after think- 
ing, answered : ' ' For the life of me, I can 't tell. ' ' It 
was entertainment ; not eloquence. It was making a 
farce of eloquence. It was the loss of a great oppor- 
tunity to utter some truth, which the speaker's 
hearers would have appropriated to their everlasting 
benefit. 

The second illustration is a message to the National 
Army, uttered September 3, 1917 : 

* * To the Soldiers of the National Army : You are 
undertaking a great duty. The heart of the whole 
country is with you. Everything that you do will 
be watched with the deepest interest and with the 
deepest solicitude, not only by those who are near 
and dear to you, but by the whole nation besides. 
For this great war draws us all together, makes u& 
all comrades and brothers, as all true Americans felt 
themselves to be when we first made our national 
independence. 

' ' The eyes of all the world will be on you, because 
you are in some special sense the soldiers of freedom. 
Let it be your pride, therefore, to show all men every- 
where not only what good soldiers you are, but also 
what good men you are, keeping yourselves fit and 
straight in everything and pure and clean through 
and through. 



1^ WooDROw Wilson's Eloquence 

"Let us set for ourselves a standard so high that 
it will be a jrlory to live up to it, and then let us live 
up to it, and add a new laurel to the crown of 
America. 

' ' My affectionate confidence goes with you in every 
battle and every test. God keep and guide you. 

"WooDROw Wilson." 

This message came from the Commander-in-Chief 
of the Army and Navy of the United States. It is 
not the speech of a soldier, but the prayer of a God- 
fearing man. Its simplicity is its sincerity. Its 
sublimity is its truthfullness. Its eloquence is its 
morality. It voiced the moral sense of America. The 
creation of the American army in a few months is the 
wonder of history. Rich and poor, learned and 
illiterate, as bj^ a divine impulse, united their efforts 
and regulated their lives in such a way as to make 
them the most resistless organized power that ever 
trod a battlefield. They were not mercenaries. They 
were free men, bound, driven and controlled by a 
moral purpose never witnessed in the course of civil- 
ization. 

This short speech is the very heart and soul of 
the man I came to know so well. Events, momentous 
in import, were crowding so rapidly one upon the 
other, that this appeal escaped, in some measure, the 
attention which it deserved. It would be interesting 
to collate all the great addresses of the immortal 
soldiers of history for comparison with this. Some 
of them were strong in diction, some brilliant in 
imagery, some powerful in appeal, but not one of 
them breathes the morality found in every word of 



WooDROw Wilson's Eloquence ^ 

this one. "Clean through and through" is a concept 
never before uttered and enforced by a commander- 
in-chief of a great military power. It was the living 
truth prescribed as a measure of military conduct. 
It explains the irrestibility of the American Army. 
"All comrades and brothers," without distinction in 
purpose, object and effort, means a better civilization 
because it is the moral faculty of the race lifting men 
to higher things. It is eloquence. 

These two illustrations will at once give rise to a 
criticism. The universal notions of eloquence will 
suggest the difference between a social occasion and 
a war. It will be said that the one is serious and the 
other a time for relaxation; that the one demands 
sober thought, while the other calls for fun. This 
may be freely conceded. But the answer to the 
criticism is, first, that nothing entertains the mind 
so much as truth ; secondly, that truth may wear the 
garb of wit, irony, sarcasm and never loose the power 
which the manifest truth always carries with it. 

These two illustrations cover the whole ground. 
They show how speech, writing, action and purpose 
may range from buffoonery to eloquence; from 
linguistic legerdemain to morality; from idle enter- 
tainment to an exposition of the beauties of truth. 
They show how easily the queen of the arts, eloquence, 
may be degraded, and they show how it may be 
utilized to lift the whole human family nearer to true 
morality, nearer to the truth itself. They show more. 
They show how eloquence, either by speech, writing, 
action, or purpose has, through the ages, carried the 
human family from its original savagery to the best 



^^ WOODROW WiLSOX's ELOQUENCE 

and highest moral state yet attamed by it. Indeed, 
the beauty of all the arts is, in the final analysis, 
nothing but eloquence itself. So that real eloquence 
is the undefiled instrument of human progress. It 
may be said to be the very essence of morality itself. 

For many years I have been engaged in thousands 
of legal controversies, and have appeared before 
public audiences as a speaker many times. In school, 
and out of school, I had been taught to believe that 
eloquence had attamed its object, if the point was 
carried and applause won. But my views of eloquence 
were revolutionized by the study of Woodrow Wilson 
and his speeches. I learned that, just in proportion 
as premises were sound and conclusions just, speech 
and writing became resistless and eloquent. I learned 
that manner, style, earnestness, true hand-maidens of 
eloquence, were not eloquence. I learned that the 
objective of all speech, writing and action was the 
truth. Therefore, I saw that real eloquence was 
limited by one's power, not to persuade or deceive, 
but to make the truth so plain that all honest minds 
at once assented to it. I saw, for the first time, that 
the vast majority of human communications were 
based upon truth, upon morality, and therefore, saw 
with entire clearness that the moral faculty in man 
was the resistless agent forever driving him to a 
better civilization. How this view crystallized into 
conviction, by association with Woodrow Wilson, it is 
my pleasure now briefly to detail. 

I will not undertake to analyze his character, nor 
make declarations concerning that in him which lies 
behind his acts and words. It is one of the propen- 



WooDRow Wilson's Eloquence ^^ 

sities of the human animal to snarl at and defame 
those, whom, for different reasons, we dislike ; to laud 
and extol, those, whom, for various reasons, we like. 
It is one of our useless pastimes. No man thoroughly 
knows himself. Much less can he know another. It 
is the very sublimity of impudence for one to assume 
to publish that about another which is forever a 
sealed book. Yet, how often we see men of parts and 
of facility of expression engaged in an effort to tell 
the world all about a fellow-being concerning whom 
they know nothing aside from his words and acts. 
Therefore, to arbitrarily affirm things relative to the 
unknown essence of a human character, is not only 
immoral, but the abasement of eloquence. It is using 
speech, not to declare the truth, but to publish one's 
own lack of truthful purpose. We see this every day 
in the abuse of our neighbors and especially of public 
men. The subsequent narrative will be limited to 
facts as nearly as may be. 

From one motive and another, from one cause and 
another, the possession of genius, or even what is 
called talent, may be denied Woodrow Wilson; but 
that he possesses tremendous force and has a far 
reaching influence, that time will not lessen, can be 
denied by no one. The nature of that force, as it 
came to exercise itself on men's mind and conduct, is 
what I am chiefly concerned with. It was a discussion 
with Mr. Griffin of that power in him which ended in 
my promise to reduce to writing the views herein 
expressed. 



CHAPTER III. 

My First Meeting With Woodrow Wilson 

My acquaintance with Woodrow Wilson, his re- 
markably quick and accurate mentality, his resistless 
moral energy, his wide range of knowledge, his 
profound human sympathy, his fidelity to all the 
relations of life, his companionable and genial nature, 
his wit, humor and composure were seen by me under 
unexpected circumstances. 

My parents, in every detail of life, were controlled 
by the necessities of poverty and the morality of 
labor. Reared in such practical philosophy, prepara- 
tory school days and college life harmonized perfectly 
therewith. Therefore, the idealism of school days 
caused me to face life with the belief that all men 
were driven in their activities by the same lofty 
convictions. Almost immediately it was discovered 
that the principle of enlightened selfishness, stim- 
ulated by downright dishonesty, was dividing men 
into classes and engendering antagonisms, which 
meant anything but the well-being of the community. 
The result was that I found myself in sharp conflict 
with accustomed methods. Democracy, it seemed to 
me, because it fostered personal initiative and offered 
every man a free voice in his government, should be 
my political faith. 

In New Jersey there flourished a bi-partisan 
machine. It controlled the Legislature and its legis- 
lation. The purpose of the legislation, in the main, 

[ 20 ] 



\ 



WooDRow Wilson's Eloque nce 21 

was to promote the interests of a few men and corpor- 
ations. Enormous sums of money were spent in 
purchase of the elections. The common weal was 
subordinated to illegitimate ends. In a small way, 
in concert with men concerned more about the general 
good than particular interests, for years I combatted 
these conditions. Finally came the Gubernatorial 
Convention of 1910. Politicians who sustained the 
bi-partisan machine, and certain other men, stimu- 
lated by vision and a measure of idealism, proposed 
to make Woodrow "Wilson Governor of New Jersey. 
Events proved that the combination could not 
harmonize. There were three elements in the prob- 
lem: first, the ability and morality of the proposed 
candidate ; second, the cunning and calculations of 
the politicians ; and third, the vast inequality between 
the capacities of the visionaries and idealists and 
those of Dr. Wilson. Disruption was the inevitable 
fate of the undertaking. 

To me, however, the situation was one of shock 
and utter detestation. Here was a scholar, untar- 
nished by practical politics, the head of a geat 
university, putting himself in the power of men who 
intended and expected to use him in the furtherance 
of their dreams and schemes. The idealism of a 
national seat of learning, it seemed to me, was to be 
degraded and polluted by contact with the worst 
political practices in the State of New Jersey. While 
discouraged, the very enormity of the offense com- 
pelled me to use every ounce of my power to help 
defeat a scheme apparently damnable. For that 
purpose I became one of the delegates to the conven- 



2" WooDRow AVilson's Eloquence 

tion at Trenton, A strong sentiment of insurgency 
had developed throughout the State against prevail- 
ing political conditions. Consequently unusual efforts 
were made to defeat the nomination of Woodrow 
Wilson. 

In the convention of 1907, Frank S. Katzenbach. 
a lawyer of spotless fame and exalted notions of public 
duty, had been nominated by the Democratic party. 
In the general election he had polled 186,300 votes, 
8,000 less than his opponent, John Franklin Fort. 
It was thought by the friends of reform that he 
should again be nominated. The honor was afforded 
me to place his name before the convention. The 
day was hot. Feeling ran intense and deep. 

After setting forth conditions in the State and 
the undoubted qualifications of Mr. Katzenbach, I 
made an attack upon Woodrow Wilson and the 
powers supporting him that produced an effect never 
to be forgotten by those who were there. The nom- 
ination of Woodrow Wilson had been pre-determined 
to a nicety by political bosses, but the immorality of 
the situation was so exposed as to throw the conven- 
tion into a state of almost uncontrollable frenzy. The 
supporters of Woodrow Wilson were in a state of 
panic. Men were on their feet shaking their fists and 
howling like mad. The storm of protest threatened 
to carry everything before it. The insurgents were 
jubilant and confident of victory. It was the happiest 
day of my life because it seemed certain that the 
good influences of the State were to come into control 
of its affairs. Yet, when the vote was counted, it was 
found that the work of the experienced machine had 



WooDKow Wilson's Eloqueistce ^3 

withstood the attack. Woodrow Wilson had been 
nominated by a small majority. Delegates who had 
pledged themselves to vote against him had been won 
over by methods familiar to the politicians. Sore at 
heart, I left the convention hall and went to the 
railway station to get away as soon as possible from 
a place where, as it seemed clear to me, political 
morality had been outraged. 

Meantime, the successful candidate had been sent 
for to address the convention. My brother "William, 
who was also a delegate, remained to hear Woodrow 
Wilson. I was still at the station, when my brother 
came with a grave face, and putting his hand on my 
shoulder, said, "John, we may be wrong about that 
man. He made a great speech. It was amazingly 
candid and forceful, exactly in line with your views 
and those of every real reformer in the State. Let 
me read you his concluding paragraphs." And he 
thereupon read to me from the evening paper: 
"America is not distinguished so much by its might 
and material power as by the fact that it was born 
with an ideal — a purpose to serve mankind. And all 
mankind has sought her as a haven of equal justice. 
When I look upon the American flag before me, I 
sometimes think that it is made of parchment and of 
blood. The white in it stands for purity, the red in 
it signifies blood-parchments on which is written the 
rights of mankind, and blood that was spilled in 
order that those rights might be perpetuated. Let 
us dedicate the Democratic party to the recovery of 
those rights." 



24 WooDRow Wilson's Eloquence 

On our way home I eagerly read and studied all 
that Dr. "Wilson had uttered in that memorable 
acceptance and soon thereafter an interview was 
effected with him. Knowing well the power and 
purpose of the men who secured his nomination, I 
was still suspicious and doubtful. I took with me to 
the interview in Princeton, a very capable intellectual 
bodyguard, Ralph W. E. Donges, Esq., whom Gov- 
ernor Wilson afterwards made President of the 
Public Utilities Commission of New Jersey, and who 
subsequently entered the National Army to render 
cognate service during the war. 

This was the first time I had seen the man whom 
I now regard as one of the greatest personalities of 
history. My first impressions of Dr. Wilson were not 
free of doubt, for the reason that I still regarded it 
as quite impossible that one whose nomination for a 
great office had been accomplished by men and 
methods such as I had denounced in the convention, 
could be a thoroughly good man, with great vision, 
uncompromising patriotism and an impregnable pur- 
pose to serve his coimtrymen. But I saw a frank 
character, open, alert, and very gifted. I at once 
observed an irreconcilable incongruity between the 
man and machine politics. 

The first topic of conversation was the nature and 
character of my assault upon him in the convention. 
With such fairness and truthfulness as limited facul- 
ties would permit, the reasons for my course were 
fully stated. Without criticism of my conduct, but 
with an implied justification of it, Dr. Wilson gave a 
full and chronological account of all the circum- 



WooDROw Wilson's Eloquence 25 

stances, involving persons and conversations, which 
led to his willingness to accept the leadership of the 
Democratic party in New Jersey. Self-respect 
required me, therefore, to state that, upon the assump- 
tion that his narrative of events was correct, I was 
not only in error in my views about him and his 
nomination, but that there remained an obligation on 
my part to him and to the public to correct my error. 
When subsequent investigation convinced me that my 
judgment, because of lack of knowledge of the facts, 
had been wrong, I made my retraction as positive and 
extensive as were my opportunities to do so. 

Dr. Wilson disclosed on this occasion his entire 
political philosophy by this statement : 

"Of practical politics I know nothing, but I do 
know that deep in the heart of every man there is a 
desire to do what is right, and I will have, if I do 
what is right, the support of every patriotic and good 
citizen." The great events that followed in the 
immediate history of the State and country, revealed 
to the full the astounding morality and righteousness 
of the man who spoke. A brief discussion of political 
conditions and affairs in New Jersey followed. My 
gratification to find that Dr. Wilson was sensitively 
alive to the needs of the State was without limit. 

Of the more human aspects of the interview 
nothing impressed me so much as the conciseness 
and fairness of Dr. Wilson, unless, perhaps it was 
his wit, which was as spontaneous and prolific as a 
gushing fountain. Before leaving I said to him: 
"Whether I support you in the coming campaign 
will depend upon investigations which I propose to 



-•' WooDEow AVilson's Eloquence 

make. If I conclude to help you, and you are success- 
ful, let it be understood and never forgotten that 
there will be no office within your gift which I would 
be even tempted to accept." We were standing at 
the time. Dr. Wilson grasped my hand, and with that 
marvelous gaze, so characteristic of him, said, "I like 
that. Good-bye." This ended my first interview 
with a man destined to become the commanding 
figure of the world. It can well be imagined with 
what perplexity of mind, concerning the possibilities 
of the campaign to come, I left the home of Woodrow 
Wilson in Princeton. 

Having verified the essentials and many of the 
details of Dr. Wilson's statements, I gladly threw 
into his campaign all the zeal, energy and intelligence 
at my command. And what a campaign ! The State 
was overwhelmingly Republican in its vote. The two 
political machines had taken it for granted that the 
Democratic candidate, if elected, would be a facile 
instrument in doing their bidding, while the same 
assumption was indulged in with reference to his 
adversary. Dr. Wilson, in a series of plain and 
powerful speeches, showed the need of, and promised, 
first, the reformation of the finances of the State ; 
second, a divorce between the agents of special 
interests and the State House ; third, the purification 
of the elections : and foiYvtli. the formation of a legis- 
lative program having for its object exclusively the 
public benefit. It soon became apparent, that the 
Democratic candidate was not only a free agent, but 
splendid in his determination to put the politics of the 
State on an exalted and moral plane. The machine 



WooDBow Wilson's Eloquence 27 

men saw their danger and brought to bear every 
means of strategy, good and corrupt, to defeat his 
election. The Democratic campaign became literally 
evangelical. It took on a fervor never before known 
in the State. It became a contagion, resistless and 
universal. The result was that Dr. Wilson was elected 
by a tremendous majority. 

During the campaign I obtained more accurate 
and comprehensive views of the mentality and pur- 
pose of this political crusader. His versatility in 
dealing with a few fundamental propositions was 
phenomenal. The illustrations used by the speaker 
were from all conditions, all ages and all philosophies. 
Humor and wit, constantly restrained, were as pure 
and unsullied as the mind that projected them. The 
marvel was that all audiences, either in cities or rural 
districts, whether composed in the main of thoughtful 
and cultivated people, or by men whose fingers were 
bent by toil and faces seamed by care and poverty, 
were in instant and zealous rapport with him. 
Harangue was invariably absent. There was no 
strain for effect; nor was there any evidence of a 
desire to win a personal triumph. Purity of diction, 
logical order, clearness and simplicity of statement 
were to me the features of the most remarkable series 
of speeches I had ever heard uttered. From tha 
endeavor to explain satisfactorily to myself this rare 
exhibition of power, I at length appreciated the 
truth of the statement made by Dr. Wilson to me in 
the interview at Princeton. Further study disclosed 
the fact that his every speech was distinctly moral. 
It also appeared that here was man seeking, actin-r 



^^ AVooDRow Wilson's Eloquence 

and stating the truth. It finally became apparent 
that it was the impressive morality of his speeches 
and their obvious truth which so easily caught, dom- 
inated and convinced all minds. Here was the 
solution of the riddle of his success and here was 
discovered the secret of real eloquence, my reflections 
upon which, originally stated to Mr. Griffin, have 
resulted in this discussion, I became convinced that 
no trick of language, brilliant sophistry, or impas- 
sioned manner could achieve great results in the 
domain of eloquence, unless the speaker had the truth, 
supported by resistless moral energy. In that case 
alone, I believe, can oratory, or eloquence, fully per- 
form its function. 

Always, finally, when I have reflected on these 
and subsequent events, and have asked myself : What 
is this strange man, what his power and what his 
eloquence ? The answer has resolved itself to this : He 
is the impersonation of moral energy and righteous- 
ness. If the spiritual theory of civilization is correct, 
then clearly this man is preeminently an instrumen- 
tality of Providence leading the human family from 
a state of selfish calculation, supported by force, to 
a condition where every man is confronted with the 
supreme interrogatory : Is it right ? — to a condition 
of determination to do as nearly right as is prac- 
tically possible — to a condition of sacrifice and com- 
promise, where the object of men is to achieve the 
greatest good for the greatest number, to augment 
happiness and diminish suffering. 

For this is his power. While it has made him 
the central point of assault by the reactionary and 



WooDRow Wilson's Eloquence ^9 

selfish interests of men, it explains why he has never 
deviated from a moral course, knowing that morality 
amongst men is right. It has been said that he was 
the most stubborn of men. An intimate personal 
knowledge of his character refutes this charge. He 
can change his mind and purpose more easily than 
any man I know, provided one can show him that he 
is morally wrong. On the other hand, once he is con- 
vinced that he is morally right, it becomes impossible 
to move him by any art, persuasion or consideration. 
I know of no man in whose presence one may feel 
more comfortable, or more uncomfortable. If you are 
right, candid and moral in your purposes, it is a 
delight and inspiration to come into the presence of 
this repository of moral potency. If you are wrong, 
if your purpose is one of selfishness and calculation, 
the very gaze of the man causes the utmost discom- 
fiture. 

This quality of character largely, if not entirely, 
explains the declination of some politicians to meet 
him and the uncompromising hostility of some of 
those who have met him. His strength is his obvious 
righteousness. The individual feels it; the world 
knows it. Hence he is the commanding figure of the 
age, palpably designed to help his fellow creatures 
attain a higher and better civilization by the exercise 
of their moral faculties. 

And this, likewise, is the quality of his eloquence. 
It is not the use of facile and apt expression. It is 
not the legerdemain of language, concealing thought 
and distorthig truth. It is neither gesture nor words. 



•^0 WooDROw Wilson's Eloquence 

It is not arrangement nor sophistry. It is moral pur- 
pose and a consuming desire to be right and to state 
and act the truth. This is the secret of real eloquence. 
And this is Woodrow Wilson's eloquence. 



CHAPTER IV. 

His Governorship 

As Governor Wilson began his new work, the 
politicians, who had sought and predicted his defeat, 
still called him a "Schoolmaster" and not infre- 
quently declared that when they got him to Trenton, 
they would run away with the inexperienced peda- 
gogue and have their own fun with him. He was 
confronted with a hostile Legislature, of a differing 
political faith and purpose. There were brought to 
bear upon that Legislature the same methods and 
forces' that Dr. Wilson had used in his campaign. 
Before clear, direct, moral and truthful argument, 
legislative opposition gradually yielded and melted 
away. In Governor Wilson's efforts to realize the 
promises he had made to the people he was tremen- 
dously aided and reinforced by the moral rebound 
of his remarkable campaign. The people of the State, 
at least for the time being, had been led to accept and 
believe in the ideals of this gifted and good man and 
they made themselves felt in the Legislature. The 
consequence was that he wrote a series of statutes 
which put New Jersey far in advance of her sister 
States. He drove corporations out of politics and 
caused them to do a legitimate business. He put the 
finances of the State upon a sound and healthy basis. 
He purified elections and substantially stopped the 
use of money in controlling votes. He impregnated 
the electorate with a moral purpose and a sense of 
[ 31 ] 



^- WooDROw Wilson's Eloquence 

profound responsibility. He made New Jersey clean. 
His work was tantamount to a moral revolution. 
Certainly he effected a political revolution. A 
moralist of grandeur, he became the most practical 
of all the Governors in the United States. His moral 
fidelity was carried into every relationship ; personal, 
social and public. His campaign and his work at 
Trenton began to attract the attention of the entire 
country. 

Two incidents, because of their importance in 
disclosing the personality and eloquence of this 
Governor of New Jersey, should be here set down. 
While touring the county of Cape May on a Saturday 
evening, he spoke in the Town Hall, at Cape May 
City, then went to Cape May Court House for his 
second speech of the evening, then to Wildwood, 
where his third speech was made. He had indulged 
besides in several arguments during the day to 
crowds of people. He was obliged to return to Cape 
May City from Wildwood and got there about one 
o'clock Sunday morning in a state of obvious ex- 
haustion. I said to him: "Dr. Wilson, you'd better 
retire and get some rest." To which he replied: "I 
will recuperate by having some fun with you boys." 
There were about thirty of us present. He began by 
telling a side-splitting story. The ensuing laughter 
was joined in by himself very heartily. This story 
was followed by some twenty more, derived from all 
conditions, classes and times. His mastery of dialects 
and brogue was perfect. To anyone in an adjoining 
room it would have been quite impossible not to 
believe that a real Irishman, German or other 



WooDRow Wilson's Eloquence ^^ 

national type was not talking. It was perhaps three 
o'clock when the party separated. Everyone was 
astonished at the candidate's phenomenal talent in 
story telling-. But what impressed me most was his 
complete recovery from weariness. He seemed to be 
refreshed as by a sound sleep. I reflected upon his 
statement : " I will recuperate by having some fun 
with you boys ! ' ' 

The other incident occurred at the beginning of 
his second campaign for the presidency. During a 
dinner to President Wilson at the Waldorf-Astoria, 
I carried on with Dr. Grayson, his personal physician, 
a long discussion concerning the physical powers of 
President Wilson. Dr. Grayson gave me the details 
of a typical day's work. I said, "How is it possible 
for him, day in and day out, to do such an enormous 
amount of work and not break down?" To which 
Dr. Grayson at once replied: "It is his sense of 
humor; he recuperates upon the food of fun." 
Fortunate is the man who possesses so rare and useful 
a gift. It saves his breaking under a load of labor 
and responsibility. I have always believed in the 
medicinal value of fun and cheerfulness, but never 
before saw it so triumphantly asserted. It is gener- 
ally supposed that President Wilson is an austere 
personage and so practical as to be out of touch 
with common humanity. Afterwards, an occasion 
permitted me to comment to the President upon the 
in frequency in his public speeches of apt stories, to 
which he answered: "I am constantly tempted to 
use them, but fear that they might afford the impres- 
sion of flippancy." He loves to make puns, some- 



^4 AVooDRow Wilson's Eloquence 

times termed the lowest form of wit, but in many 
conversations with him, both as Governor and Presi- 
dent, his spirit of fun and intellectual playfulness, 
while very pronounced, have never left the impres- 
sion that his humor was anything less than sound 
philosophy, good sense, and perfectly clean morality. 



CHAPTER V. 

Hi-s Further Progress 

There always have been and always will be two 
theories explanatory of civilization ; one spiritual, 
the other material. Either theory may properly 
embrace what has already been said concerning the 
moral faculty in the progress of the race. For my 
purpose it is unimportant which theory may be 
accepted. But it is difficult to explain the fact that 
every great crisis in human history produces a 
commanding leader. In the case of President Wilson 
the problem is all the more perplexing. For the first 
time in American History there arose, from a seat of 
learning, a character not only relatively unknown, 
but unschooled in the art of politics. Woodrow 
Wilson was without political experience and training, 
and unassociated with politicians. He had drunk 
deep at the fountain of learning, had written a his- 
tory of his country, and somewhat upon the theory of 
our government. It was thought by certain designful 
men that his talents and prestige might be utilized to 
further their schemes and purposes. Convinced, as I 
first was, that the movement was nefarious, I hap- 
pened to come very near to defeating it. Considering 
what followed and what is going on in the world at 
the present hour, one can well imagine how often I 
have asked myself what the consequences might have 
been had that opposition to his rise been successful. 
The query is not an idle one when it is suggested 
[ 35 ] 



2'^ WooDRow Wilson's Eloquence 

whether a Divine Providence was not preparing, 
under such unusual circumstances, to meet the future 
of our beloved country by the production of this 
remarkable character. 

This query loses none of its interest when we pass 
to the next step in the work of President Wilson, The 
moral energy of the man, together with his practical 
achievements, had arrested the attention of the 
observing minds of every State in the Union. It was 
as if some great moral compulsion were already 
moving the American people, as if Providence were 
compelling them to prepare for events that few men, 
if any, imagined could be possible. 

The historic Baltimore Convention of 1912 was 
destined to emphasize the query stated. The conven- 
tion lasted from the 25th of June to the 2nd of July. 
It was probably the most remarkable and momentou>s 
ever held, since, within its unseen potentialities, re- 
sided a moral force, which, in the near future, was 
to direct and largely control the fate of the world, 
the civilization of mankind. 

I will not speak of the incidents of the convention, 
but rather of its meaning. Probably no convention 
ever conducted its affairs upon a loftier or purer 
basis. While argument, appeal and political ma- 
iioeuver were driven by an intensity and zeal seldom 
witnessed, there was not even a suggestion of unfair- 
ness or trickery from the beginning to the end of 
its memorable days. It was generally conceded, 
before the balloting began, that the successful candi- 
date would be the Hon. Champ Clark, Speaker of the 
House of Representatives, or else Woodrow Wilson, 



WooDRow Wilson's Eloquence ^^ 

the meteoric Governor of New Jersey. The first ballot 
gave Speaker Clark four hundred forty, and Gov- 
ernor Wilson, three hundred twenty-four votes, the 
other votes being scattered among various other can- 
didates. 

According to universal experience, the first ballot 
meant the nomination of Mr. Clark. As the balloting 
proceeded, he gained, but so did Governor Wilson. 
Still, Clark's lead was so pronounced that there 
seemed to be no doubt about his ultimate success. Yet, 
on the forty-sixth ballot Governor Wilson won the 
nomination. Again, therefore, I put the query : How 
explain the rise of the man whose course transcended 
all precedent? 

Governor Wilson made no bargains, nor appeals 
with a view of advancing his interests in the conven- 
tion. A profound moralist, he had an impregnable 
faith in an overruling Providence. His Christianity 
was as unpretentious as it was real. Therefore, 
preceding and during the convention he kept his 
hands off, and to some of his friends, seemed passive 
to the extent of indifference itself. He believed that 
the right thing would happen. His trust in an all- 
wise Being was as impressive as his belief in the 
ultimate triumph of righteousness in human affairs. 

The members of the convention who espoused 
Governor Wilson's cause were of a faith similar to 
his own. They had studied the problems of the 
times. They had come to believe that the country 
was drifting to a crisis, which required for its 
direction the genius and character already proclaimed 
in the public acts of New Jersey's Governor. Con- 



^^ WooDBOW Wilson's Eloquence 

sequently, they were not only impervious to the 
pleadings and manoeuvers of opposing candidates, 
but were also as determined as the Christian martyrs 
of old. Nothing could disturb their faith in the man 
or their sense of duty to the public. They were held 
by a great moral conviction. They were very like 
those brave spirits who attacked the institution of 
slavery. They had the zeal and purpose of the 
Crusaders. They argued as if the fate of their 
country depended upon the outcome of the conven- 
tion. It would not have been possible, by any 
conceivable influence, to break the ranks of the 
Wilsonian phalanxes. This phenomenon never before 
appeared, so far as I know, in a political convention. 
It was a moral fact that could neither be resisted, 
nor circumvented. It was the rock of righteousness 
on which all selfish, personal hopes and ambitions 
were to break. 

Besides this, the thousands of visitors who poured 
daily and nightly into the great convention hall were 
caught in a sort of moral contagion, which thundered 
the cause and purpose of the Wilson movement. It 
was an adjunct of almost resistless potentiality and 
slowly affected the convention itself. Never before 
had outsiders exerted such an influence on the out- 
come of a convention, nor could it be credited, unless 
witnessed. It was like the heat of a great conflagra- 
tion, which mortal man could not escape noticing and 
feeling. Besides this, after the convention had settled 
with great intensity to its work, and it became 
apparent that a mighty conflict was raging therein, an 
anxious and onlooking country began io direct its 



WooDEow Wilson's Eloquence ^^ 

influence upon the delegates through innumerable 
telegrams, urging the nomination of Governor Wilson. 
It was one of the unseen and unrecorded but most 
potential influences that shaped and determined the 
work of the convention. 

Some weeks before the convention assembled, I 
had made an extensive tour of the Middle West for 
the purpose of determining how deeply and widely 
the character and work of Governor Wilson had taken 
hold of men 's minds. It was evident that the best men 
of that region thought and felt identically as the 
delegates did, who cast their first ballot for Woodrow 
Wilson. It was that state of conviction throughout 
the country which finally voiced the telegrams, which, 
I think, nominated him. The fate of the other can- 
didates depended upon the usual political methods. 
But Governor Wilson's candidacy depended upon 
influences that never before entered a political con- 
vention. A species of instinct, which men were 
conscious of, but could not understand, was in the 
very air and was slowly disintegrating all previously 
laid plans and arrangements. It was the moral force 
of this strange character that appeared so unaccount- 
ably in American thought. It finally forced opposing 
delegates to yield until they themselves became help- 
less before a power which could not be resisted. So 
in that contradiction of all precedents and experience 
the politically impossible happened. It was a display 
of moral energy that one finds hard to explain unless 
he turns to a Wisdom that is not of man. 

The campaign which followed is equally unex- 
plainable by the usual methods and means employed 



"^^ WooDRow Wilson's Eloquence 

in the conduct of a great struggle. In no other 
country of the world are political bias and prejudice 
so intense and uncompromising as in America. It is 
the marvel of our national life. It was this very 
fact, however, that elected President Wilson. A 
quarrel, due more to political bias than to the dom- 
ination of any great idea in the opposing parties, a 
quarrel without sense or justification, made President 
Wilson's election a certainty. Clearly this was not 
human design. Folly and political zeal were at grips 
for a purpose not intended by men. Nor can the 
situation be attributed to accident. There were forces 
underlying and guiding it which were as moral as 
they were resistless. The outcome, when the factors 
involved are studied, almost compels the belief that 
Providence was preparing the way for what was 
soon to come. 

The situation with which the President dealt 
during his first term was almost entirely internal. 
The financial side of the problem was settled and 
American finances placed in an impregnable position. 
The other side of the problem, social justice, was 
postponed by the breaking out of the great European 
war. It is now upon us in a state of almost unsur- 
mountable difficulty. 

What is that phase of the problem? First, the 
world as a whole had produced an astounding 
measure of wealth and creature comforts. Secondly, 
the schoolhouse and printing press had completely 
and profoundly changed the common apprehension 
of labor, which, guided by a high degree of intelligent 
organization on the part of capital, had produced 



WooDROw Wilson's Eloquence ^^ 

that wealth. Very able men availed themselves of 
tKe legal and commercial means of controlling and 
securing an illegitimate and undue proportion of the 
world's wealth. The situation involved a huge im- 
morality, which the general enlightenment of man- 
kind could not and would not sanction. It was a 
moral evolution not to be dealt with by the methods 
of centuries gone. 

The margin between universal devastation and 
universal life is appallingly narrow. It is as thin as 
the productive soil of the earth. Few men grasp the 
full force of this fact. The human family subsists 
upon what is produced day by day. The farmer 
feeds the world. Even those who go down to the sea 
and return with food, before they go, and until they 
return, must be sustained by the farmer. If food 
production were suspended for three months, the 
human race would disappear. Distribution of food 
products is equally important. If distribution of 
food were stopped for one month, the human family 
would be in a state of helpless, uncontrollable law- 
lessness in its struggle to secure subsistence. Wealth 
would lose its meaning. Poverty would destroy all 
government and men would become howling beasts 
of prey. But the farmer cannot produce without the 
implements of production. Therefore, as all men 
depend upon the farmer, so he does and must, depend 
upon all men. Inter-dependence, it is feared, is too 
little appreciated. The man of means seldom realizes 
how his very existence depends upon those who toil. 
On the other hand, the fundamental defect of social- 
ism is that while it attempts to equalize the products 



4- AVooDRow Wilson's Eloquence 

of labor, it fails to consider the impossibility of equal- 
izing the talents and capacities of men. Inventors, 
organizers, discoverers, scholars, speculative thinkers, 
doctors, lawyers, teachers, are just as indispensable 
to the evolution of civilization as the man with the 
hoe The view that the man with the hoe is unimpor- 
tant is a desperate immorality. The view that the 
organizer is unimportant is equally immoral. The 
view that one should not be rewarded more than the 
other is likewise wrong. And those processes by 
which the cunning acquire more than they earn are 
wrong and immoral. Combinations of producers, 
which undertake to compel more than just compen- 
sation are manifestly in error and engaged in an 
immoral undertaking, because they are resorting to 
the aboriginal methods of violence. The gravity of 
their mistake, as a practical step, lies in the circum- 
stance that they lessen production. If the problem 
of social justice is to be worked out by force, not only 
is civilization a myth, but human happiness an im- 
possibility. The solution of the problem is a moral 
one. Men are capable of reasoned argument. They 
are capable of seeing the right thing and they are 
equally capable of doing the right thing. Those who 
produce can well afford to rely upon the imperative 
morality of their needs and demands. The moral 
faculty in the race will ultimately adjust what is 
unjust. The moral sense in man is vastly more 
powerful than the instinct of selfishness. 

I add that social justice is the immediate problem 
of the whole world, made so by the war just ended. 
America's part in the solution of that problem has 



WooDROw Wilsok's Eloquence ^ 

widened by the war and embraces the world. Thus, 
the present state of affairs appears to be the final 
test of the moral faculty in civilization. Either the 
principle of unreasoning force must prevail, or the 
flexible power of living Christianity must prevail. 
The balance wheel of the world's practical morality 
is President Wilson. The principles of justice and 
morality, as expounded and enforced by him, will 
prevail and the evolution of human progress will 
continue to be guided by man's moral faculty. 



CHAPTER VI. 

Instances of His Eloquence 

It is to be regretted that, under the circumstances, 
one or two of his gubernatorial speeches can not be 
produced. Despite their clarity and cogency of 
reasoning, the most conspicuous characteristic of 
those speeches was the moral basis on which all of 
his arguments rested. From his college days to the 
present hour, there cannot be found, in his numerous 
utterances and acts, a single instance where moral 
purpose and an effort to state the truth are absent. 
On the contrary, from the beginning to the end, a 
consuming earnestness to get the truth and publish 
it is the patent and impressive fact in the life of 
this remarkable man. I know of no other person in 
political history of whom I can make this declaration 
with entire confidence. 

I must content myself with citing two instances 
only. The first is a quotation from his inaugural 
address, delivered March 4, 1913 : 

"The Nation has been deeply stirred, stirred by 
a solemn passion, stirred by the knowledge of wrong, 
of ideals lost, of government too often debauched and 
made an instrument of evil. The feelings with which 
we face this new age of right and opportunity sweep 
across our heart-strings like some air out of God's 
own presence, where justice and mercy are reconciled 
and the judge and the brother are one. We know 
[ 44 ] 



WooDRow Wilson's Eloquence 45 

our task is to be no mere task of politics but a task 
which will search us through and through, whether 
we are able to understand our time and the need of 
our people, whether we be indeed their spokesmen 
and interpreters, whether we have the pure heart to 
comprehend and the rectified will to choose our high 
course of action. 

"This is not a day of triumph; it is a day of 
dedication. Here muster, not the forces of party, but 
the forces of humanity. Men 's hearts wait upon us ; 
men's lives hang in the balance; men's hopes call 
upon us to say what we will do. Who shall live up 
to the great trust? Who dares fail to try? I sum- 
mon all honest men, all patriotic, all forward-looking 
men to my side. God helping me, I will not fail them, 
if they will but counsel and sustain me." 

This declaration reveals the inmost nature and 
morality of President Wilson. In inaugural speeches 
there is, of course, always an effort to state things in 
strong and appealing terms. But, for the most part, 
such speeches are not a revelation of the real man 
who utters them. In this case it was. If it were 
possible to feel, touch and measure the very soul of 
mortal man, it would be agreed that this quotation is 
the actual vivid and living Woodrow Wilson. Nor 
has his participation in past momentous events, and 
in those of present occurrence, shown the slightest 
deviation from the commanding morality of this 
incomparable statement. 



^^ WooDRow Wilson's Eloquence 

The second selection is from his address to Con- 
gress on the 8th of January, 1918, containing the 
celebrated fourteen points: 

1. ''Open covenants of peace, openly arrived at, 
after which there will be no private international 
understandings of any kind, but diplomacy shall 
proceed always frankly and in the public view. 

2. "Absolute freedom of navigation upon the 
seas, outside territorial waters, alike in peace and in 
war, except as the seas may be closed in whole or in 
part by international action for the enforcement of 
international covenants. 

3. "The removal, as far as possible, of all economic 
barriers and the establishment of an equality of trade 
conditions among all the nations consenting to the 
peace and associating themselves for its maintenance. 

4. "Adequate guarantees given and taken that 
national armaments will be reduced to the lowest 
points consistent with domestic safety. 

5. " A free, open minded, and absolutely impartial 
adjustment of all colonial claims, based upon the 
strict observance of the principle that in determining 
all such questions of sovereignty the interests of the 
populations concerned must have equal weight with 
the equitable claims of the government whose title 
is to be determined. 

6. "The evacuation of all Russian territory and 
such a settlement of all questions affecting Russia as 
will secure the best and freest co-operation of the 



WooDROw "Wilson's Eloquence ^ 

other nations of the world in obtaining for her an 
unhampered and unembarrassed opportunity for the 
independent determination of her own political 
development and national policy and assure her of 
a sincere welcome into the society of free nations 
under institutions of her own choosing; and, more 
than a welcome, assistance also of every kind that 
she may need and may herself desire. The treatment 
accorded Russia by her sister nations in the months 
to come will be the acid test of their good will, of 
their comprehension of her needs as distinguished 
from their own interests, and of their intelligent and 
unselfish sympathy. 

7. "Belgium, the whole world will agree, must be 
evacuated and restored, without any attempt to limit 
the sovereignty which she enjoys in common with all 
other free nations. No other single act will serve, 
as this will serve, to restore confidence among the 
nations in the laws which they have themselves set 
and determined for the government of their relations 
with one another. "Without this healing act the whole 
structure and validity of international law is forever 
impaired. 

8. "All French territory should be freed and the 
invaded portions restored, and the wrong done to 
France by Prussia in 1871 in the matter of Alsace- 
Lorraine, which has unsettled the peace of the world 
for nearly fifty years, should be righted in order that 
peace may once more be made secure in the interest 
of all. 



*^ "WooDRow Wilson's Eloquence 

9. "A readjustment of the frontiers of Italy 
should be effected along clearly recognizable lines of 
nationality. 

10. "The peoples of Austria-Hungary, whose 
place among the nations we wish to see safeguarded 
and assured, should be accorded the freest oppor- 
tunity of autonomous development. 

11. "Rumania, Serbia and Montenegro should be 
evacuated; occupied territories restored; Serbia ac- 
corded free and secure access to the sea; and the 
relations of the several Balkan States to one another 
determined by friendly counsel along historically 
established lines of allegiance and nationality; and 
international guarantees of the political and economic 
independence and territorial integrity of the several 
Balkan States should be entered into. 

12. "The Turkish portions of the present Otto- 
man Empire should be assured a secure sovereignty, 
but the other nationalities which are now under 
Turkish rule should be assured an undoubted security 
of life and an absolutely unmolested opportunity of 
autonomous development, and the Dardanelles should 
be- permanently opened as a free passage to the ships 
and commerce of all nations under international 
guarantees. 

13. "An independent Polish state should be 
erected which would include the territories inhabited 
by indisputably Polish populations, which should be 
assured a free and secure access to the sea, and whose 



WooDROW Wilson's Eloqueitce ^ 

political and economic independence and territorial 
integrity should be guaranteed by international cove- 
nant. 

14. "A general association of nations must be 
formed under specific covenants for the purpose of 
affording mutual guarantees of political independence 
and territorial integrity to great and small States 
alike." 

This is the sublimest declaration of practical 
morality ever uttered in the political and social world. 
It is the same thing as the Ten Commandments and 
the Lord's Prayer are in the spiritual and religious 
world. The principles therein stated at once gripped 
and held the world in their mighty embrace. They 
reached the common consciousness of men, and, for 
a time at least, united their moral forces in an almost 
rniversal purpose. It was the first time in history 
that pure morality formulated a plan by which peace 
could be forever secured and war forever banished, 
and by which the nations could proceed to develop 
their resources, preserve their respective nationalities, 
and measurably secure the happiness and comfort of 
every human being on the earth. This declaration 
brought an end to the war, and, in my belief, will, 
sooner or later, secure the peace of the world for all 
time to come. It must be so, or we are obliged to 
admit that savagery and selfishness, not kindliness 
and righteousness, are the objectives set, by an all- 
wise Providence, for the attainment of the race. 

No one thinks of attributing genius, talent, or 
even eloquence to Christ. He dealt in the simplest 



^^ WooDRow Wilson's Eloquence 

manner with the profoundest truths, so that they 
were understood and appropriated by all honest 
minds. When His Divinity is taken into account, it 
compels the admission that His utterances acquire the 
sanctity of the Eternal Good, God. Christ was per- 
fectly eloquent because He was perfectly good. 

How simple, therefore, is the work of the states- 
man, when he proceeds upon principles of morality, 
righteousness and true eloquence ; how very difficult 
is his work when he deals with selfishness, unrighteous- 
ness and immoral calculations. How soon then he 
creates antagonisms ending in war, as the world has 
witnessed so many times. 

I have spent a long life in strife and struggle. 
The inscrutable puzzle to me is that our representative 
men are not more willingly guided, in their public 
work, by simple considerations of morality. I do not 
understand why, when problems arise for solution, 
they cannot take into account the good of all men. 
It seems very clear, as the situation in the world 
today shows, that their failure to follow the principles 
of plain morality, exercises all the wit of man to 
avoid war by compromises forever having as their 
object an advantage to be gained. If the principles 
of the fourteen points were rigorously applied, there 
could be no war and the Divine injunction, Peace on 
Earth and Good Will to Man, would be established 
and men would soon learn that the beauties of 
righteousness are more desirable than the miseries of 
war. 

Considering which, it is not surprising that I 
often contemplate what might have happened, if I 



WooDRQw Wilson's Eloque^tce ^ 

had succeeded in defeating the nomination of Wood- 
row Wilson for the governorship of New Jersey in 
1910. Nor can anyone avoid the belief, when all the 
foregoing is taken into account, that there is a moral 
design in the luiiverse and that the moral faculty in 
man is forever driving human affairs to a better 
state. 



CHAPTER VII. 

Social Justice 

I am writing this chapter, not only to round out 
the argument concerning eloquence, but to state the 
substance of discussions, held years ago, between 
President Wilson and myself. The vast project, 
concerning social justice, held in contemplation by 
him, was necessarily interrupted by the great war. 
It will require time, thought and moral effort to 
bring America and the other nations into a mood to 
solve the problems yet to be solved. 

There can be no such thing as social justice in the 
absence of a sound financial system. The genius of 
Woodrow Wilson gave the United States admittedly 
the best financial system in the world. It put money 
easily within the reach of every industrious and 
honest citizen. This achievement was the beginning 
of the establishment of real social justice in the 
America of our day. The other phase of the problem, 
namely, the relation between labor and capital, was 
rendered enormously more difficult by the war of 
1914. The question is seriously acute in every nation 
at the present time. 

To the thoughtful man the wonder is, not the 
presence of unrest and confusion everywhere prev- 
alent, but the absence of universal chaos. In the 
general social ferment, superficial thinkers are study- 
ing symptoms, not the disease ; effects, not causes. 
[ 52 ] 



WooDRow Wilson's Eloquence ^^ 

Before the war the wealth of the world afforded 
such a measure of general comfort that mankind was 
in a state of comparative contentment. It is true that 
socialism, an effort to equalize the enjoyment of the 
world's wealth, was taking root in places where pov- 
erty was most sensitively felt. Yet, there were no 
general unrest and disturbance of the world's busi- 
ness. 

The war came as the direct result of greed and 
ambition. What was it? Approximately twenty 
millions of men, under arms, were engaged, for the 
period of four years, in the scientific destruction of 
wealth. Substantially all the remainder of the human 
family devoted its energy, in one way or another, to 
the sustentation of that terrible machine of devasta- 
tion. Note the consequences. First, it is estimated 
that two hundred billions of the world's surplus 
wealth were destroyed, a catastrophe so enormous and 
wide-reaching that it must profoundly effect every 
human being on the earth. Secondly, approximately 
ten millions of the most efficient men in the world 
were put under the sod and twice as many were 
maimed and rendered practically unfit for the pro- 
duction of wealth, while many millions, old and 
young, were destroyed by massacre, starvation and 
disease, directly due to the war. Thirdly, the indebt- 
edness of the nations was augmented approximately 
to the extent of two hundred billions. Fourthly, all 
the industrial and commercial processes of the world 
were disjointed and thrown out of their usual course. 
Fifthly, as inevitable consequences, prices rose with 
unheard of rapidity, the purchasing power of money 



^^ WooDEow Wilson's Eloquence 

declined with equal rapidity, and taxes the world over 
were increased, almost beyond the power of the 
nations to carry them. Sixthly, there resulted a 
shortage of labor everywhere. Seventhly, the psy- 
chology of war, which, in my opinion, was the worst 
of its evils. During four years, men, women and 
children were fairly consumed by the passions of 
destruction, hatred, vengeance, retaliation and mur- 
der, carried on by wholesale and retail. These deep 
passions became almost a habit. To win, to conquer, 
to destroy life and property, were the burning pur- 
poses of the nations. It would not be so difficult to 
clear the wreckage of some great cataclysm, if men 
were moved, in so doing, by humane and moral 
purposes ; but to clear the wreckage of a world war, 
while the habitual passions of war are still, more or 
less, in the possession of the nations, is an almost 
impossible task. Even when statesmen went at the 
undertaking with just and moral aims, the mass 
passions back home neutralized their efforts very 
largely. Not until the psychology of the war shall 
have yielded to the adoption and application of the 
principles of justice and morality, will social justice 
be made attainable. 

It is as certain as the law of gravity that the 
world as a whole cannot get back to pre-war content- 
ment and prosperity until the wealth destroyed by 
twenty millions of armed men is recreated, and until 
the increased national indebtedness of two hundred 
or more billions are brought within control. The 
nations are now staggering under a load of at least 
four hundred billions of destroyed wealth and 



WOODROW WiLSOX's ELOQUENCE ^^ 

financial obligation. This wealth can be restored only 
by labor. The debts of the nations must be either 
paid or repudiated. Repudiation would mean com- 
mercial chaos, but, if the debts, due to the war, are 
to be paid, they must be paid by wealth yet to be 
created by human effort. The disease therefore, the 
symptoms of which are so assiduously studied and 
unavailingly doctored, is the disease of poverty and 
under-production. We make no progress by blinking 
the facts. If one's house and all his belongings are 
destroyed by fire, the owner is confronted with two 
alternatives, the one to work and recreate his lost 
wealth, the other to become a hinderance and an agent 
of disturbance. 

In my speech nominating Woodrow Wilson for 
his second term, I predicted, because I foresaw it, the 
creation of a League of the Nations to secure peace 
and prevent war. The frightful heritage of that 
devastation will never be recovered from unless peace 
is made permanent by the abolition of war, the most 
immoral act, as a rule, that men engage in. Nor 
can social justice ever be achieved, until peace is 
secured as an abiding world condition. As long as 
war is possible, social justice is impossible, for the 
plain reason that war is the antithesis of social justice. 

Peace cannot be secured and war prevented unless 
the nations agree to secure peace and prevent war. 
That was undertaken by the peace of Versailles. 
President Wilson, in the fourteenth, of the celebrated 
fourteen points, said: *'A general association of 
nations must be formed. ' ' The nations at Paris used 
the phrase League of Nations. This attempt, tried 



56 WooDROw Wilson's Eloquence 

for the first time in the history of the world, was 
the greatest step ever taken by mankind to secure 
social justice. Two thousand years ago Christ said : 
* ' Let there be peace on earth and good will to man ; 
do to others as you would have them do to you. ' ' The 
politicians and lawyers of Christ's day declared him 
to be a disturber of the peace and he was crucified. 
The nations at Paris undertook to identify the 
declarations of Christ with statesmanship. They 
undertook to make governments and international 
obligations moral and just. The world must either 
progress or retrogress. It cannot stand still. If it 
progresses, it must be along the lines traced in the 
pact of Versailles, because those lines lead to a perfect 
international morality. The effort at Paris was the 
consummate expression of the morality of Woodrow 
Wilson. It was a flash of eloquence that enlightened 
the world. The word has been spoken and its moral 
power will never die. 

When this sublime undertaking reached the 
American Senate, the politicians and the lawyers 
condemned it, practically crucified its author, and 
endeavored to destroy it. It is indestructible, because 
morality is indestructible. It will live. The psy- 
chology of the war found its expression in personal 
and political hatred in the United States. Nor can 
this be wondered at, when it is considered that the 
hundred and ten millions of people, who constitute 
the citizenship of the United States, are a conglom- 
erate of all the nations of the earth. Each group, 
making up our citizenship, was moved and controlled 
by the passions that moved and controlled the citizens 



"WooDBOw Wilson's Eloquence ^ 

of the nations from which they came. It was prac- 
tically impossible, in the fiery swirl of national 
passions, for this great moral conception to secure 
due and calm consideration. The advocates of the 
League were met by advocates of an Association, as 
if there were any conceivable substantial difference. 
If the Wilsonian phrase "Association of Nations," 
used in his fourteen points, had been adopted by the 
nations at Paris, the psychology of the war would 
have demanded a League of Nations. And so the 
psychology of the war, for the time being, has checked 
the great moral movement of the world towards 
universal peace by agreement. 

Whether the phrase League of Nations, or that of 
an Association of Nations, be employed, international 
agreements become inevitable. International agree- 
ments must be kept, or morality between nations 
disappears. Nothing but the psychology of the war 
could have quarreled over the two phrases. If the 
purpose of either a League or an Association is to 
secure peace, prevent war, reduce armaments, and 
establish social justice, a plan, a set of rules, or prin- 
ciples become a necessity. 

The League of Nations, adopted at Paris, by 
upwards of forty nations and by a vast majority of 
the earth's inhabitants, was framed upon four 
distinct principles. The first was arbitration of 
international disputes, the very opposite of war; the 
second, publication of the terms of arbitration with 
sufficient time for the nations to consider the fairness 
and justice thereof, the very opposite of war; third, 
in case a nation, whose dispute was arbitrated, refused 



'^^ WooDRow Wilson's Eloquence 

to abide by its terms, boycott of that nation by all 
other nations in the League, the very opposite of war ; 
fourth, if boycott failed to compel acceptance of the 
terms of arbitration, force was to be applied. A 
simpler and more comprehensive plan to secure peace 
and prevent war is beyond the mind of man to 
conceive. Reduction of armaments was also a detail 
of the scheme. Based upon the purest morality, as 
the conception is, a universal adoption thereof would, 
in all human probability, have made war impossible 
and would have resulted in the realization of social 
justice throughout the world. 

The fundamental objections, made by politicians 
in America to the adoption of the League were, first, 
that it would involve a surrender of national 
sovereignty and, second, embroil us in European 
disputes. These objections are not only illogical, but 
they are immoral. 

The nations are already associated by electricity, 
by steam, by commerce, by blood and social ties, and 
by a body of international law. AVe cannot escape 
this association, if we are to remain in the family 
of civilized nations. But what is this sovereignty, 
this sacred bugbear, to be lost, if we agree with other 
nations to enter a compact to secure peace and 
prevent war? 

First, what is individual sovereignty? It is the 
power of the individual to do as he pleases. What 
are the limitations upon the power of the individual 
to do as he pleases? They are, first, the social 
compact; second, the laws of the land; third, his 
contracts; fourth, those moral obligations which the 



WooDRow Wilson's Eloquence ^^ 

average man respects. These limitations upon per- 
sonal sovereignty are not only moral, but the more 
completely they are conformed to, the more perfect 
is the state, the more pronounced the social justice of 
the state. What is national sovereignty? It is the 
power of the nation to do as it pleases. What are the 
limitations upon the exercise of that power? First, 
international law, so far as it has been formulated 
and approved by civilized nations; second, the moral 
obligation resident in the masses of mankind and 
acknowledged by men everywhere ; third, treaties 
between nations. Treaties between nations are 
always, so far as their terms go, a surrender of the 
power of the nations, bound by that treaty, to do as 
they please. It is the veriest nonsense to say that, if 
the United States were a member of the League of 
Nations to secure peace and prevent war, its 
sovereignty would be surrendered any more than its 
sovereignty is surrendered when it enters into a 
treaty with a single power, or with two or more 
powers. It is equally foolish to hold that, if the 
United States should be a member of the League of 
Nations to secure peace cind prevent war, it would 
become embroiled in European disputes. If such 
would be the result, then every time the United States 
enters into a treaty wath a European power it is, at 
least to that extent, entangled in European affairs. 
Therefore, the objections raised, are not only plainly 
immoral, but they put America in antagonism with 
the tenets of Christianity. 

To have checked this vast moral project, as it was 
formulated at Paris by Woodrow Wilson, is not to 



60 



WooDRow Wilson's Eloquence 



have defeated it. It is his glory to have identified 
practical statesmanship with the teachings of Christ. 
The bent of the masses of mankind is towards peace. 
The moral forces of the world demand it. Its reali- 
zation cannot be stopped, unless the morality of the 
race is transformed into its original savagery. Peace 
will be secured and war prevented by an agreement 
between the nations, whether we call it a League or 
an Association. The moral purposes of the world 
cannot be defeated in the interests of party politics, 
in America or in any other country. 

Perhaps some politician, who defeated the League 
of Nations, can explain to the ordinary man, how and 
why, if we stipulate with European nations to reduce 
armaments, we do not, at least to that extent, impair 
our national sovereignty and become entangled in 
European affairs. America blundered, but and not- 
withstanding, unless civilization is to fail and the 
race lapse into savagery, the moral forces must 
prevail ; peace will come by the concord of the nations, 
not only without the loss of their respective sovereign- 
ties, but by the enthronement over all of a Prince, 
the Prince of Peace. 

Another aspect of the problem of social justice 
appears under a variety of isms. Nihilism, Bolshevism, 
Single Taxism, Socialism and what-not. In general 
terms their purpose is to control the production of 
wealth and its distribution. The growing intelligence 
of the world 's labor, in its eagerness to escape oppres- 
sion, has taken shelter under various delusions. The 
very term socialism, vaguely conceived and poorly 
considered, has drawn to it millions of earnest men. 



WooDROw Wilson's Eloquence ^^ 



Their quest for the true solution of the problem of 
social justice will not halt until the solution has been 
reached. It has often been pointed out that the 
underlying conception of these groups of thinkers 
will necessarily end in the destruction of capital, the 
very worst calamity that could visit the human 
family. 

Just as civilization is due to the moral faculty, so 
the solution of the problem of social justice must be 
a moral, not merely an economic solution. The 
homeliest analysis will prove this assertion. Suppose 
the entire human race, unclothed, unsheltered and 
unfed were placed in line and reasoned with in the 
following way: 

"Let us see upon what points we can absolutely 
agree. First, we are all animals, and, without shelter, 
clothing, food, light, air and water, must die." 

Every human being would agree to this obvious 
truth. Air, light and water, without which we would 
immediately die, are furnished us by nature and 
nature's God. Every sensible being would agree to 
this truth. 

''Next, do we all agree that a beneficent Provi- 
dence has furnished us with the earth, from the soil 
of which our food must come ? ' ' Everyone agrees to 
this and must agree to it, with this modification, that 
while air, light and water are free, food must be pro- 
duced somehow from the soil. 

"Can we agree upon another point? Is man, by 
Divine decree, compelled to get food from the soil by 
the sweat of his brow?" If it is agreed to, as it must 



^2 AYooDKOW Wilson's Eloquence 

be, then let us proceed to execute that decree. At 
the end of a day's work, on the part of the entire 
human famih', by virtue of assent to these simple 
truths, what would have happened? Some would 
have produced nothing. The very old and the very 
young and the mentally feeble would have produced 
nothing, because it was out of their power to produce 
anything. Some would have produced relatively 
little, because their capabilities were relatively small. 
Others, on account of their physical and mental 
superiority, would have produced a great deal. 

What now, is to be done with the great deal? 
These isms say "divide equally amongst all." 

At the end of the week, it will be found that the 
strong and capable have produced a greater quantity. 
At the end of the month and the year the capable will 
have produced a much larger quantity. If, now, the 
socialistic theory be applied, there will be no surplus, 
because it will have been divided day by day, and, in 
all probability, consumed. That is to say, there will 
be no capital. Out of the surplus, equally divided, 
the old, the 3'oung, and the incompetent will have 
been cared for. This is moral, because it is humane 
and christian. Those who did their best but were 
unequal to the task, will have been cared for. This 
is moral, because it is humane and christian. Those 
who were indolent shirkers will have become parasites. 
To divide equally with them would be immoral, 
unjust and unchristian. To compel the able and 
industrious to divide the fruits of their toil, under 
such a system, is to compel injustice and inhumanity. 
But the worst of the theory is that humanity, despite 



WooDRow Wilson's Eloquence 



G3 



the efforts of its best, would never acquire a surplus, 
never acquire capital, since it would be equally 
divided day by day, divided by a theory inherently 
wrong and immoral. Under such an arrangement, 
progress is an impossibility ; hence it is suicidal. 

Under this conception, at the end of the year, it 
would be found that some possessed imagination and 
inventive faculty. They would be able to trace the 
secret laws of nature and discover great truths, which, 
practically applied, enabled them to produce incom- 
parably more than their fellows. Some would be dis- 
covered to be great organizers and leaders and 
therefore capable, in conjunction with inventors, to 
utilize the efforts of their fellows so as to produce an 
enormous surplus. Yet, under the socialistic theory, 
inventors and organizers would be impossible and the 
human family would be decreed to live from hand to 
mouth throughout the ages. There would be no 
progress and the race would disappear, since every- 
thing produced would be equally divided day by day 
in virtue of a practice, which, because of its obvious 
unfairness, would lead to perpetual strife. 

Take still another view. Every human being is so 
organized that he wants to have his own way. From 
the cradle to the grave he struggles to have his own 
way. Yet, he never succeeds in having his own way, 
first because of his limitations ; second, because of his 
environment ; third, because of the organized will of 
his fellows; fourth, because every human being, 
directly or indirectly, is opposing him. Still, in this 
universal conflict of will and desire, everybody 
manages to live. The daily transactions of the 



^4 WooDRow Wilson's Eloquence 

human family run into the millions. Every one of 
these transactions is a conflict. Every one of them 
involves, more or less, good and bad motives. At the 
end of each day of these millions of transactions, 
what is their balance sheet? If the total of them 
shows more comfort and happiness than discomfort 
and unhappiness, not only has the world progressed, 
but the moral faculty has acquired ascendency, and 
civilization is accounted for. That is to say, the good 
motives of the millions of transactions daily of the 
human family have gained upon the bad motives. The 
test always is, has human happiness been augmented 
or decreased? Through the endless centuries human 
happiness and comfort have increased, or the race 
would have become extinct, which demonstrates the 
thesis that the moral faculty explains man's progress. 
Progress is the infinite result of infinitesimal com- 
promises. Civilization is the cancellation of error in 
the infinitesimal transactions in the daily life of the 
race. Morality is forever in the ascendant. This 
progress could not have been made under the theory 
of an equal division of surplus. Hence the system 
of socialism is fundamentally wrong. 

It is manifest that the capable and the willing 
would not submit to an equal division of the fruits of 
their efforts with the incapable and unwilling. It 
would involve a plain immorality. It would encourage 
the incapable and unwilling to become more so and 
the progress of the race would end. Consequently, 
the various isms having for their object the establish- 
ment of social justice would miserably fail, as is 
instanced by the history of Russia. 



WooDBOW Wilson ^s Eloquence ^ 

Another phase of social justice is presented in the 
evolution of the principle of combination. In 
America we conceive the virtue of our institutions to 
be expressed in two popular dogmas, the one equal 
opportunity and privilege, the other the greatest good 
to the greatest number. Economic science, as we are 
taught it, springs from the system under which men 
have lived from a remote past to the present day. 
Out of it has grown the great law of supply and 
demand. This law, if justly and morally applied, 
fits the situation in which the human animal finds 
himself. Our progenitors undertook to see that the 
law of supply and demand should be justly and 
morally applied. Hence the two dogmas stated. But 
the law of supply and demand can be applied only to 
an individualistic state of society. It can be justly 
applied only between natural individuals. 

The first invention of society, which made the 
application of this principle difficult, was partner- 
ships. As soon as men combine, the combination has 
an obvious advantage over the individual. Hence 
the dogma of equal opportunity and privilege begins 
to disappear. It has disappeared in the United States 
and throughout the world. 

The principle of partnership has its limitation in 
the deaths of the individuals that constitute it and 
in the liability of each partner to the extent of his 
ownership in the wealth controlled by this form of 
combination and in whatever other wealth the 
partners may have. Partnerships are rapidly disap- 
pearing and are succeeded by another form of 
combination, namely, the corporation. 



'^^ ^Yooi)Row Wilson's Eloquence 

The corporate principle exposes three stages of 
development. The first was marked by a legislative 
limitation upon the right of the corporation to pursue 
more than a single line of business. The second arose 
when legislatures gave corporations the right to 
pursue any number of vocations. The third arose 
when legislatures gave corporations the privilege of 
combining. A corporation, being immortal, and its 
members relieved from responsibility beyond the 
extent of the corporate property, had an enormous 
advantage over the natural individual. Hence arose 
the modern trust, and the individual was at the 
mercy of a combination that he could by no possibility 
compete with. The modern trust largely controls 
both production and distribution, the very thing that 
socialism aims to achieve and which affords socialism 
its chief justification. If a number of men may 
combine, under the corporate principle, to control 
production and distribution, it is asked by the 
socialists, why should not government itself do the 
same thing ? There is much force in the question, but 
its fallacy has been already exposed. 

No more useful work of scholarship could be 
performed than to produce a lucid exposition of the 
development of the corporate principle. It has trans- 
formed human effort. While it has made individual- 
istic competition impossible, it has multiplied the 
world's surplus verj^ far beyond that which 
individual effort could have gone. It has made it 
possible for individuals of commanding talent to 
acquire, on the one hand, an undue part of the surplus 
of human effort, and on the other, to oppress masses 



WooDROw Wilson's Eloquence '^'^ 

of men and limit competitive effort. The corporate 
principle, as now applied, enables the corporation to 
control the production of human necessities and 
therefore the supply and price of such necessities. 
It is no longer a contest between natural individuals, 
but one between artificial and natural individuals. 
So that, while the dogma of equal privilege and 
opportunity has disappeared, the dogma of the 
greatest good to the greatest number can be made, 
through the agency of the corporate principle, the 
greatest blessing ever vouchsafed to the race. 

A productive machine is a combination in more 
senses than one. If a machine, superintended by one 
person, produces twice as much wealth as the person, 
by combination of brain and muscle, could produce, 
the machine, in competition, surpasses the person in 
production. If a piece of machinery produces, when 
operated by one person, twenty times the quantity of 
wealth producable by the combined brain and 
muscular power of the person operating it, it becomes 
the equivalent of the productive capacity of twenty 
persons. 

This is the age of machinerj^. Steam engines, steam 
ships, factories of every sort, by their combined power 
and efficiency, have multiplied the wealth of the world 
to an extent never dreamed of by past ages. In 
reality it is the combination of individual brain and 
muscle. It is very evident that individuals, by the 
simple application of brain and muscle, could, by 
comparison, produce only an infinitesimal fraction of 
the wealth daily produced. It is equally evident that 
the ownership of the world's machinery cannot be 



C8 



WooDRow Wilson's Eloquence 



equally distributed amongst the inhabitants of the 
earth. If, from the beginning of invention, its equal 
distribution had been attempted, there would have 
been little or no machinery in existence and the world 
would have been incomparably poorer than it is today. 
While these simple truths are self-evident, they serve 
to show two things : First, that combination of power 
and effort are indispensable to general happiness and 
comfort ; second, that the principle of combination is 
here to stay. No one would advocate the abolition of 
machinery, since by it only can the resources of the 
earth be exploited for the use of men. 

For the same reasons, there must be combinations 
of machinery, factories and great business under- 
takings, which are capital. The common necessities 
of men can be met and satisfied in no other way. It, 
therefore, follows that vast aggregations of wealth, 
whether we call them trusts or soulless corporations, 
are here to stay. Progress cannot continue without 
them. Their existence destroys the dogma of equal 
privilege and opportunity, but, at the same time, 
makes the greatest good of the greatest number a 
realizable dream. They bring within the limits of 
human achievement, not only the establishment of 
actual social justice, but the actual abolition of 
poverty and unhappiness. 

Yet, these great instrumentalities of good have 
been made instrumentalities of oppression, caiLse of 
strife, and the advocacy of all the isms that occur to 
men as a means of avoiding such results. 

Surplus, or capital, is not only the product of 
human effort, but it is entirely due to differences in 



WooDRow Wilson's Eloquence 



69 



the abilities of individuals. This truism lies at the 
bottom of all our difficulties. The man of genius 
cannot be held back by the stupidity of another. If 
so, the world would have had no surplus, no capital 
and no progress. There would have been no homes, no 
towns, no cities, and none of the instrumentalities of 
civilization. 

Is there any real solution of the problem? Is it 
possible for men to attain social justice? I answer 
the question by three incidents, one actual, another 
largely actual, and the other supposititious. 

Some years ago, while a strike was in progress in 
New Jersey, I happened to meet one of the employers 
of the strikers. He said to me, "The labor of 
America knows too much ; it is above its business ; it 
needs to be taught to keep its place." I said to him, 
"Are you against public schools and colleges; are 
you against newspapers and books; are you against 
general education?" He promptly answered, "No." 
Then I observed, ' * To keep the labor of America from 
knowing too much, you will have to keep labor from 
the schools and newspapers; otherwise you will 
support the evil you complain of. Suppose every 
man and woman in the world were as intelligent as 
you are, would the farms cease to be tilled, coal cease 
to be mined, ditches ceased to be dug, railroads cease 
to be built, and machinery cease to be made and 
operated? Plainly not, or we would all perish 
together. If all men were your equal in intelligence, 
would the labor of the world be any less well done? 
It would be better done ; but you would run into this 
trouble. Men of your intelligence would not be 



'^^ AVooDRow Wilson's Eloquence 

willing to do the world's manual labor under condi- 
tions and for a reward which would make their lives 
unhappy and miserable. There is your problem. If 
you are an organizer and capitalist, you are no more 
human than the employees who perform your manual 
service. The one is of as much consequence as the 
other in the system of things. The distinction between 
the human claims of one over the other is entirely 
false and immoral. As soon as men of superior ability 
and high position duly recognize the claims of men 
of inferior ability and lower position, the conflict 
between labor and capital will disappear. We must 
have capital and labor, or civilization will vanish. A 
fair and moral recognition of the inter-dependence of 
labor and capital, with a just reward to each 
according to their respective merits, will make strikes 
impossible and bring universal contentment." 

The employer agreed to the soundness of this 
argument, but thought it too idealistic for the race 
as it now is. But the fallacy of his objection is found 
in the circumstance that the moral sense of men is 
an ever-increasing power in human relationships. It 
contemplates the gradual diminution of that form of 
selfishness which closes its eyes to the humanity of 
the least important laborer in the world. Justice is 
morality. Morality is the kingdom of Christ. Sooner 
or later all men recognize this eternal truth. It is 
the only conceivable solution of the problem of social 
justice. I may add that the strike in question was 
at once settled when the corporation did what it 
should have done in the first instance. 



WooDRow Wilson's Eloquence "^ 

The supposititious ease is this : Jones had accu- 
mulated enough wealth to sustain his family in com- 
fort and luxury. There is enough surplus wealth in 
the world to liken the possessors of that wealth to the 
situation of Jones. He advertised for a house servant. 
Next day two women appeared in answer, one middle- 
aged, the other young. To the question by him, 
"What will you do the work for per week?" The 
elder said, "Five dollars." The younger, "Four 
dollars." Here was an opportunity to apply the law 
of supply and demand. 

"Why do you want five dollars per week," asked 
Jones of the elder. She replied, "My husband is 
dead; I have three small children; their shoes are 
worn out ; there is no coal in the bin, nor flour in the 
can; they are hungry; I must get five dollars, or 
they will sutier. '' The younger one, to the same 
question, said, ' ' I am unmarried ; I can live for less ; 
my needs are not so imperative." Jones played the 
necessities of these two beings against each other and 
finally secured the services of the mother for four 
dollars per week. Society approved. He had driven 
a sharp bargain. He had applied the law of supply 
and demand. He apparently added to his wealth by 
the contract. 

The transaction had two sides, one physical, the 
other moral. On the physical side, Jones had propo- 
gated ill health, suffering and inefficiency in both the 
mother and her children. He may have driven the 
young woman to want or crime by forcing her on the 
street. Indirectly he had added to the difficulties of 
society in many ways. On the moral side, Jones had 



^2 WooDBow Wilson's Eloquence 

intensified his own selfishness and greed, engendered 
hate in the hearts of the two women and driven them 
towards that feeling of despair and hopelessness that 
leads to social unrest. 

Suppose, now, that Jones, after hearing the 
respective stories of the women, had said to the 
mother, "No, I will not give you five dollars; I will 
give you seven," to the other, "I am interested in 
your case, come to my office tomorrow and I will find 
you some remunerative employment." The trans- 
action w^ould have had its physical and moral sides. 
Jones w^ould have been a better and happier man. 
The mother would have taken up her work with good 
cheer and hope in her heart. Her children would 
have grown stronger and healthier. The young 
woman would have left Jones with respect and love 
in her heart, and Jones' interest in her behalf would 
have made her a stronger and better woman. In both 
cases the total of human happiness would have been 
augmented. In the end Jones finds that the services 
of the mother were so efficient that he had actually 
saved money. 

In the one case, the law of supply and demand had 
injured society ; while, in the other, an application of 
the moral law had benefitted society. In the one 
case, economic science had failed ; in the other, moral 
science had succeeded. Christ was the greatest 
political economist that ever appeared. "Do unto 
others as you would have them do unto you" is the 
last word in economic science. There is enough 
wealth in the world to permit the application of the 
moral code in every conceivable case of employment. 



WooDRow Wilson's Eloquence '^ 

If it were applied, what would become of the strife 
between labor and capital? What would become of 
strikes and lockouts, what of social unrest, what of 
mefficiency and waste? Not economic science, but 
moral science will secure social justice amongst men. 

The partially actual and partially supposititious 
illustration is the following : A graduate of one of 
our universities had mastered economic science. Of 
great energy and commanding ability, he saw a rare 
opportunity to establish a big commercial enterprise 
in one of the Eastern States. In a few years, at the 
head of a powerful corporation, he had built a town, 
employed thousands of men, women and children, and 
amassed a large fortune. These results had been 
achieved by a relentless application of the principle 
of combination and of the law of supply and demand. 
Wages had been kept to the lowest possible point. 
Men, women and children were worked to the very 
limit of human endurance. The homes of the workers 
became unsightly and repulsive. The children were 
inadequately clothed. By the factory store system 
the earnings of all the employees were absorbed. 
Religion amongst them had become a mockery. Faith 
had been banished from their hearts and immorality 
was the habit of the community. Dividends were 
large and regular. 

The head of the institution had married a Chris- 
tian woman. They had a family of beautiful children, 
who were indulged in extravagant luxury before the 
very eyes of a broken community. The good mother, 
by her moral ministrations, not only alleviated the 
sufferings of the poor to some extent, but often 



^* WooDROw Wilson's Eloquence 

protested to her powerful husband against the con- 
ditions that his sj^stem of economic science had 
produced. The moral and physical sides of this 
situation are obvious. 

In course of years, the climax came. The 
employees could endure their conditions no longer. 
Socialism was at work amongst them. Labor organ- 
ization directed their antagonisms into a destructive 
strike, because demands were refused. Factories were 
closed. Disorders broke out. Buildings were burned 
and excesses soon got beyond control. As a result, 
the head of the institution visited the Governor of 
the State to induce him to send the militia to subdue 
his rebellious subjects. 

While at the Capitol of the State for this purpose, 
his children were sailing on a lake, which was a part 
of his extensive domain. The boat capsized. The 
children were doomed. Some of the strikers saw their 
peril, and, at the risk of their lives, succeeded in 
saving the children of their economic master and 
enemy. 

For the first time in his life, the head of this 
tyrannical institution saw the value of the human 
heart. For the first time he was made to feel and 
know the meaning of Christ's teachings. He saw that 
common laborers were made in the image of God, and 
that they, like himself, came from the same mysterious 
source and were bound to answer the same destiny. 
At once the demands of the men were met and the 
strike ended. 

But this was not all. A new system, thoroughly 
revolutionary and against every tenet of economic 



WooDEOw Wilson's Eloquexce '^^ 

science, was immediately projected. Out of the 
surplus of the concern, with the assent of the stock- 
holders, a public hall was built, a reading room 
provided, a library established and a course of 
weekly lectures inaugurated. Besides, the employees 
were induced to buy their own homes and the com- 
pany elaborated a scheme by which it was accom- 
plished. Employees were encouraged to purchase 
stock of the corporation. A new church and a school 
house were built. Drunkenness disappeared from 
the community. Young children were kept out of 
the factories and put in schools. The whole town 
took on a different aspect. Flowers appeared in the 
yards of working men. Books and some form of 
music were found in their homes. Labor in the mills 
became an enjoyment. Some of the employees in- 
vented new processes and made improvements, which 
brought larger profits into the treasury of the cor- 
poration. But the most interesting of all the results 
was that in proportion as interest and efficiency grew, 
waste disappeared. It was one of the most prosperous 
and contented communities in America. 

Here again economic science was tried and found 
wanting. Here again the economics of morality were 
tried and produced the most desirable results. 

As long as men acquire more of the product of 
human effort than they are entitled to, whether by 
legitimate or illegitimate means, whether by the law 
of supply and demand, whether by taking advantage 
of human necessities and weakness and economic con- 
ditions, or by downright theft, there will be strife, 



''^ AVooDRow AVilson's Eloquence 

in the shape of class feeling, strikes, violence and 
coercion. 

There are three forces resistlessly at work in 
modern life. One is the spread of intelligence ; the 
other the rapid production of wealth by machinery 
and combination; the other a growing appreciation 
by many of the captains of industry of the value of 
morality in business transactions. Nations are grad- 
ually moulded by these conditions. The statesman 
who fails to build in harmony with these forces will 
fail and the likelihood of national and international 
conflict will grow. 

My argument has been neither exhaustively nor 
gracefully framed, but it answers my purpose. It 
has, I believe, shown that inherent morality is driving 
the race to a better civilization ; that, while science 
is the truth, the arts forever tend to coalesce with 
science and become scientific ; that eloquence, either 
in speech, writing or action, is the mouthpiece of the 
arts and even the voice of science itself; that real 
eloquence is the truth, and that, therefore, eloquence 
is measured and determined by one's ability to state 
and live the manifest truth; that style and manner 
are not eloquence, although they may adorn it ; and 
that truth is the most fascinating and commanding 
of all qualities in speech, writing or action. These 
views generated from the study of the speeches and 
acts of Woodrow Wilson, whom I regard as the first 
man in history to identify statesmanship with Chris- 
tianity. Therefore, the world will follow him in the 
coming centuries, because there is in man a capacity 
for perfect eloquence, which is the eternal truth. 



Sketck of Judge Wescott s Liie 



By Charles R. Bacon, New Jersey Editor of 
The Philadelphia Record. 



This rugged son of a hardy toiler of New Jersey 
came forth from the ranks of the people. When I 
first came to know John W. Wescott I was covering 
for my paper the trial of the negro, Lingo, for the 
murder of Annie Miller. That was twenty -two years 
ago. I had known the man as a lawyer, had had some 
slight acquaintance with his ability and capacity by 
personal contact with several important cases with 
which he was professionally associated and had rather 
admired his frank and vigorous manhood, but it was 
in the long tedious ordeal of that great trial that I 
really took his measure and sounded his depths. Day 
after day as the trial proceeded through four solid 
weeks, amid many exciting and, as we newspaper men 
say, colorful incidents, I discovered the great warm 
heart that throbbed beneath that splendid frame and 
learned the human side of a great and masterful 
lawyer. 

I became so imbued with the strong character 
which dominated the legal proceedings, overshadow- 
ing all else, that one who had prejudged the case and 
who feared that justice might be cheated wrote my 
paper in indignant protest, suggesting that I must 
[ 77 ] 



'^^ WooDRow Wilson's Eloquence 

be iu the pay of the counsel for the defense. The 
results fully substantiated all that I had written and 
clearly brought out the fact that a human heart and 
a great mind can so completely dominate a situation 
as to subordinate its every other aspect. I have 
always felt since those days as though it were not so 
much the trial of a poor negro as the development of 
a superb manhood that I had recorded with such 
enthusiasm as to evoke hostile criticism. 

Never since that time have I had cause or occasion 
to amend my estimate of John W. Wescott. On the 
contrary, the years have ripened and accentuated the 
judgment, and now that he has been called to the 
service of the people, I am convinced that no more 
earnest and honest advocate of a righteous cause lives 
in our State. 

It is not strange that John W. Wescott is a 
Democrat, considering his training and his qualities. 
He started with poverty and pugnaciousness and has 
risen by force of a rare mind, not to a position of 
wealth, but to one of public confidence, affection and 
respect. He has lived sixty-seven strenuous years, 
but is today as hale and serene as though a life of 
plenty and the gospel of love and gentleness had 
ahvays been his. 

In the City of Camden, where Judge Wescott 
practices law, he is looked on as a somewhat austere 
and self-contained man. He is not sociable, in the 
sense of being talkative and jolly, but he has hosts 
of warm friends who began by admiring his skill as 
an advocate and grew to love him as a trusted and 
affectionate friend. Perhaps the most notable example 



WooDROW Wilson's Eloquence ^ 

of this is President Wilson himself. He first learned 
of Judge Weseott just after being nominated by the 
Democratic party at Trenton for the governorship 
of New Jersey. The Judge had made the speech 
nominating ex-Mayor Katzenbach, of Trenton. With 
that speech he had almost stampeded the Wilson 
delegates for Katzenbach. The Wilson leaders could 
not tell for a time whether their lines would hold or 
not. But organization and the hand of Providence 
finally won the day for Wilson. 

After the convention, the Judge and the candidate 
met at Princeton. They immediately gained each 
other's confidence by a frank and fearless discussion 
of the campaign. Their acquaintance has since grown 
into a personal friendship highly prized by each and 
it was not for political reasons alone that the Judge 
was selected in 1912 to put the President's name 
before the convention at Baltimore and again in 
1916 at St. Louis. 

Judge Weseott 's boyhood was spent in Waterford, 
Camden County, where he was born in 1849. He led 
a hardy outdoor life. Waterford was a prosperous 
little glass-making village surrounded for miles by 
the stunted oak and pine woods of South Jersey. 
John Weseott, Sr., a native Jerseyman, was an expert 
cutter of window glass, a silent, steady man who never 
was known to swear or lie. He believed that to spare 
the rod spoiled the child. 

The same belief inspired the village school teacher, 
who gave the future presidential nominator his first 
lesson in public speaking. This teacher, a tall, stal- 
wart youth named R^ed, required the children to 



''*' WooDRow Wilson's Eloquence 

"speak pieces." Johimy Wescott wouldn't speak. 
Reed had a will of his own also. The school was on 
the second floor of a large grange hall, which still 
stands there beside the White Horse Pike. It was 
hot weather and the windows were raised. Fearing 
that the rebellious and stubborn boy might try a 
dangerous escape, Reed stationed the big boys in 
front of the open windows, then took down his raw- 
hide gad and commanded John to mount the platform. 
John mounted, but was silent. ' ' Crack ! ' ' went the 
whip about his legs. 

"You'd scarce expect!" prompted the teacher. 
In a low voice the words were finally repeated, then 
silence. "Crack!" came the cowhide around the 
little legs again. "One of my age!" yelled Reed. 
Out it came, but no more. Again the whip sang and 
cut. ' ' To speak in public ' ' — Crack ! "On the stage. ' ' 
After the lines, "But if I chance to fall below 
Demosthenes or Cicero" 

Reed put both hands to his mouth and shouted, 
*'Go it, Susie, while you're young!" and compelled 
the unhappy orator to wind up his speech with these 
humiliating words. Had the teacher lived, no one 
would have rejoiced more than he in the distinction 
as a speaker that finally came to his unresponsive 
little pupil. 

The boy's mother, Catharine Bozarth Wescott, 
also native to New Jersey, did not spoil him either, 
but she had great ambitions for him. She had named 
him John Wesley and intended that he should preach 
the gospel of the Methodists. To his mother Judge 
Wescott says he owes his start in the great world. 



WooDROw Wilson's Eloquence ^ 

With Reed's encouragement, she helped him off to 
boarding-school in New England. He had tried 
several times unsuccessfully to join the Union army, 
being rejected, even as a drummer boy, on account of 
his youth and slenderness. This nearly broke his 
heart. He resolved to become strong. He worked 
and fought his way along, without financial help, 
through Wesleyan Academy and Yale University, 
gaining steadily in power of body and mind. While 
at Yale he met his wife, Frances Pryor, a native of 
Connecticut. 

He had developed into an all-round athlete of 
great skill, becoming especially well known as a boxer. 
He took life and himseK seriously as a rule and would 
not let anybody get the better of him if he could help 
it. A New Haven policeman who had heard Wescott 
called the best boxer in college made some disparag- 
ing remarks about the college brand of athletics. The 
result was a contest between young Wescott and the 
best boxer on the large New Haven force, a fight 
which the New Haven participant, now an ancient 
pensioner, still loves to tell about. "It was a foine 
shcrap," he said recently. "I was shtrong an' quick 
in them days, but young Jack Wescott was a shade 
too clever for me; ye never could tell phwhere he'd 
be going to land next." 

From the Yale Law School, where he took the 
DeForrest Gold Medal, the highest university honor 
in oratory and literary composition, and where he 
won further athletic fame as bow oar of the fast 1876 
crew, of which the famous coach. Bob Cook, was 
stroke oar, John Wescott returned home and began 



S2 WooDKow Wilson's Eloquence 

the practice of law in Camden with David Pancoast 
in 1878. In 1886 Governor Leon Abbett appointed 
him President Judge of the County Court of Common 
Pleas, to take the place of Judge Reed, deceased. 
This was the same Reed who had taught school at 
Waterford and made the Wescott boy recite his first 
"piece." 

At the bar, Judge Wescott had early gained the 
reputation of a fighter. He was always resourceful, 
but fought clean and hard. Always generous to a 
beaten adversary and cheerful himself when worsted, 
he has remained the inspiration and pride of the 
struggling youth of his profession. In 1894 he was 
assigned by the Supreme Court to defend Francis 
Lingo, the negro indicted for the murder of Mrs. 
Miller, wife of a farmer living near Matchtown, 
Camden County. Mr. Wescott literally took his life 
in his hands in defense of Lingo, for the whole 
countryside was ablaze with the desire for vengeance. 
Lingo was convicted after a long and bitter trial. 
Mr. Wescott was certain that the negro was innocent. 
By a study of the locality and comparing the testi- 
mony relating to time with that relating to distances, 
he saw that Lingo could not have been present when 
the woman was killed. He was allowed a half hour 
for argument on the rule for a new trial. When the 
time was up, it was unanimously agreed by the Court 
to let him go on. He argued the case for three days. 
The result was a new trial. At the second trial 
popular fury had subsided. Sober second thought 
prevailed, and Lingo was acquitted by direction of 
the Court on the case presented by the State, without 



WooDROw Wilson's Eloquence ^ 

calling on the defense. Without Judge Wescott's 
zeal and tenacity, which led the Chief Justice to call 
him "a benevolent madman," this innocent negro 
would undoubtedly have been hanged for another's 
crime. Mr. Wescott's remarkable cross-examination 
had destroyed the State's case completely. He is a 
master in the trial of cases, as has been shown during 
his service as Attorney General by the conviction of 
the Roosevelt strike-breakers at New Brunswick, 
charged with the illegal shooting of strikers. They 
were ably defended by former Attorney General 
MeCarter and other eminent counsel and local public 
sentiment was violently in their favor, but Judge 
Wescott fearlessly and strenuously performed his 
duty and effectually checked such lawlessness as had 
marked the handling of the strike at Roosevelt. 

While president of the New Jersey State Bar 
Association, Judge Wescott called to address it such 
able and distinguished students of our legal and 
economic conditions as Hon. George W. Alger, of the 
New York Bar, and Brooks Adams, Esq., whose 
writings on the economic side of law are of world- 
wide fame among scholars. The address made by 
Judge Wescott himself on retiring from the presi- 
dency of the association shows the vehement optimism 
that lies at the foundation of his character. "Faith 
in the future," he then said, ''is not anchored in a 
sea of doubt. It is an impregnable certainty, fixed 
in the nature of man." 

While always active in politics as a propagandist 
of democratic ideas and policies and a tireless cam- 
paigner for the Democratic ticket, Judge Wescott 



^ WooDRow Wilson's Eloquence 

could never be induced to "play the game" for 
personal advancement. He ran once for Congress in 
1888, and went down with Cleveland, though he led 
the ticket in his district. In 1907 he joined the young 
progressive element of South Jersey in support of 
Frank S. Katzenbach for Governor. It was his 
manly opposition to Woodrow Wilson and his equally 
manly espousal of the Wilson cause when convinced 
that it was in line with true progress that brought 
Judge Wescott again into a campaign for elective 
office. Governor Wilson chose him, after much delib- 
eration, for the delicate and difficult task of heading 
the New Jersey delegation to Baltimore in 1912, and 
of presenting his name to the assembled convention. 
The result made a national reputation for the New 
Jersey lawyer and led his young associates in the 
delegation to vent their enthusiasm for him in a boom 
for nomination to the United States Senate. While 
Mr. Wescott was absent on his well-earned vacation, 
more than five thousand voters of his party petitioned 
for his nomination. Their genuine enthusiasm sur- 
prised him on his return and made it doubly hard to 
sacrifice, a few weeks later, the candidacy thus 
spontaneously made. 

But loyalty to a cause triumphed instantly over 
personal ambition. Judge Wescott 's act at that time 
was far-sighted, fearless and self-denying. The an- 
nouncement made in May that he would again become 
a candidate for the nomination gave great satisfaction 
to all his former supporters, who had felt deprived of 
their first opportunity to choose for their Senator a 



WooDBow Wilson's Eloquence ^ 

man bred in the hard school of poverty, who had won 
success against great odds and who had never for- 
gotten the plain people who have made this country 
irreat. 



Speecli of Hon. Jokn W. Wescott 

oi Camden, New Jersevj 
Nomiiiatiii^ 

Governor Woodrow Wilson 

oi New Jerse\j 
For tke Presidencv) oi tke United States 
at tke Democratic Convention 
Baltimore, Jvme 27, 1912 



New Jersey, once bound, but, by the moral energy 
and intellectual greatness of a single soul, now free, 
comes to this historic convention, in the glory of her 
emancipation, to participate in your deliberations, 
aid in formulating your judgments and assist m 
executing your decrees. The New Jersey delegation 
is in no sense empowered to exercise the attributes 
of proprietorship. On the wreck and ruin of a 
bi-partisan machine a master hand has erected an 
ideal Commonwealth in less than two years. (Ap- 
plause.) New Jersey is free. Therefore, the New 
Jersey delegation is commissioned to represent the 
great cause of democracy and to offer, as its militant 
and triumphant leader, a scholar, not a charlatan ; a 
statesman, not a doctrinaire ; a profound lawyer, not 
a splitter of legal hairs; a political economist, not an 
egotistical theorist; a practical politician, who con- 
[ 87 ] 



88 WooDROw Wilson's Eloquence 

structs, modifies, restrains without disturbance or 
destruction ; a resistless debater and consummate 
master of statement, not a mere phrase-maker ; a 
humanitarian, not a def amer of characters and lives ; 
a man whose mind is at once cosmopolitan and com- 
posite of all America; a gentleman of unpretentious 
habits, with the fear of God in his heart and the love 
of mankind exhibited in every act of his life (ap- 
plause ) ; above all a public servant who has been tried 
to the uttermost and never found wanting — peerless, 
matchless, unconquerable in the performance of his 
duty, the ultimate Democrat, the genius of liberty and 
the very incarnation of progress. (Applause.) 

New Jersey has reasons for her course. Let us 
not be deceived in the essentials of the premises upon 
which this convention will build, if it builds success- 
fully. Campaigns of vilification, corruption and 
false pretense have lost their usefulness. The evolu- 
tion of national energy is toward a more intelligent 
morality in politics and in all other relations. 
(Applause.) The line of cleavage is between those 
who treat politics as a game and those who regard it 
as the serious business of government. The realign- 
ment of political parties will be on this principle. 
The situation admits of no dispute and no com- 
promise. The temper and purpose of the American 
people will tolerate no other view. The indifference 
of the American public to its politics has disappeared. 
Any platform, and any candidate on that platform, 
not fully responsive to this vast social, political and 
economical behest will go down to ignominious defeat 
at the polls. (Applause.) Platforms are too often 



WooDROw Wilson's Eloquence 



89 



mere historic rubbish heaps of broken promises- 
Candidates are too often the unfortunate creatures 
of arrangements and calculations. Exigencies, con- 
ditions, national needs and necessities make better 
platforms and produce greater leaders than does the 
exercise of proprietorship. (Applause.) Hence it is 
that a disregard of the premises will bring our dreams 
crashing in ruins next November. 

Again the eternal conflict between equal oppor- 
tunity and special privilege is upon us. Our fathers 
wrote the issue of that struggle in our Constitutions. 
They declared all men to be free and equal. In a 
single century that principle developed the North 
American continent, leavened the world with its 
beneficence, inspired all nations with hope and made 
the United States the asylum of all mankind. (Ap- 
plause.) Yet America, at this very hour, presents 
the most stupendous contradiction in history — a 
people politically free, while economically bound by 
the most gigantic monopolies of all time and burdened 
with a system of taxation which exploits millions to 
enrich a few. We have preserved the forms of 
freedom, but are fast losing its substance. The evils 
of this condition are felt in a thousand ways through- 
out the land. Therefore it is that America is awake. 
Therefore it is that a mistake in our premises will 
be fatal. Therefore it is that the situation, the 
national exigency, the crisis, call for the right man. 
Therefore it is that a silent and resistless revolution 
demands our patriotic and best judgment. Individuals 
are as nothing and personal ambitions are worse than 
nothing. Impersonality should be the majesty of this 



90 



WooDKow Wilsoit's Eloquence 



convention. If the chosen candidate fails in any 
sense or in any degree fully and completely to meet 
the call of the nation, he is doomed to defeat. (Ap- 
plause. ) 

Men are known by what they say and do. Men 
are known by those who hate them and those who 
oppose them. (Applause.) Many years ago the 
distinguished executive of New Jersey said, ' ' No man 
is great who thinks himself so, and no man is good 
who does not strive to secure the happiness and com- 
fort of others." (Applause.) This is the secret of 
his life. This is, in the last analysis, the explanation 
of his power. Later, in his memorable effort to retain 
high scholarship and simple democracy in Princeton 
University, he declared, ' ' The great voice of America 
does not come from seats of learning. It comes in a 
murmur from the hills and woods, and the farms and 
factories and the mills, rolling on and gaining volume 
until it comes to us from the homes of cdmmon men. 
Do these murmurs echo in the corridors of our uni- 
versities? I have not heard them." A clarion call 
to the spirit that now moves America. Still later he 
shouted, "I will not cry peace so long as social injus- 
tice and political wrong exist in the State of New 
Jersej'." (Applause.) Here is the very soul of the 
silent revolution now solidifying sentiment and pur- 
pose in our common country. 

The deeds of this moral and intellectual giant 
are known to all men. They accord, not with the 
shams and pretenses of diseased and disorganized 
politics, but make national harmony with the millions 
of patriots determined to correct the wrongs of 



WooDRow Wilson's Eloquence ^^ 

liberty in all their regnant beauty and practical 
plutocracy and re-establish the maxims of American 
effectiveness. (Applause.) New Jersey loves her 
Governor, not for the enemies he has made, but for 
what he is. All evil is his enemy. He is the enemy 
of all evil. The influences opposing him have demon- 
strated his availability and fitness on the one hand, 
and exposed the unavailability and unfitness of cer- 
tain others on the other hand. The influence that 
has opposed him blights and blasts any cause and 
any person it espouses. That influence has appealed 
to the sordid, the low and the criminal. That influ- 
ence fattens and gorges itself on ignorance and 
avarice. Any man who accepts the aid of that influ- 
ence would be more fortunate had a millstone been 
tied about his neck and he had been cast into the 
depths of the sea. (Applause.) New Jersey believes 
that the opposition to her Governor, such as it has 
been and such as it is, necessitates and secures his 
triumph. 

Similar necessities, causes and motives impel all 
men similarly the world over. The same necessities, 
causes and motives which draw, as by omnipotence, 
all New Jersey about this great and good man, are 
identically the same necessities, causes and motives 
that are in resistless motion in every State in the 
Union. (Applause.) Its solidarity cannot be disin- 
tegrated. False argument falls broken against it. A 
revolution of intelligent and patriotic millions is the 
expression of these same necessitits, causes and mo- 
tives. Therefore, New Jersey argues that her splendid 
Governor is the only candidate who can not only 



<J2 WOODEOW WILSOX'S ELOQUENCE 

make Democratic success a certainty, but secure the 
electoral vote of almost every State in the Union. 
(Applause.) New Jersey herself will endorse his 
nomination by a majority of one hundred thousand 
of her liberated citizens. What New Jersey will do, 
every debatable State in the Union will do. (Ap- 
plause.) We are building, not for a day, or even a 
generation, but for all time. Let not the belief that 
any candidate may succeed, rob us of sound judg- 
ment. What woiild it profit the Democratic party to 
win now, only to be cast out four years hence? The 
Democratic party is commissioned to carry on a great 
constructive program, having for its end a complete 
restoration of the doctrine of equal rights and equal 
opportunity — without injury or wrong to any one. 
Providence has given us, in the exalted character of 
New Jersey's executive, the mental and moral equip- 
ment to accomplish this reincarnation of democracy. 
New Jersey believes that there is an omniscience 
in national instinct. That instinct centers in her 
Governor. He is that instinct. (Applause.) How 
can his power in every State be explained? He has 
been in political life less than two years. He has 
had no organization of the usual sort ; onlj'^ a practical 
idea, the re-establishment of equal opportunity. 
(Applause.) The logic of events points to him. The 
imperious voice of patriotism calls to him. Not his 
deeds alone, not his deathless words alone, not his 
simple personality alone, not his incomparable powers 
alone, not his devotion to truth and principle alone, 
but all combined, compel national faith and confidence 
in him. (Applause.) Every crisis evolves its master. 



WooDBOW "Wilson's Eloquenok 



93 



Time and circumstance have evolved tlie immortal 
Governor of New Jersey. The North, the South, the 
East and the West unite in him. Deep calls to deep. 
Height calls to height. 

"From peak to peak, the rattling crags among, 
Leaps the live thunder. Not from one lone cloud, 
But every mountain now hath found a tongue, 
And Jura answers through her misty shroud 
Back to the joyous Alps, who call to her aloud." 

The lightning flash of his genius has cleared the 
atmosphere. We now know where we are. The 
thunder of his sincerity is shaking the very founda- 
tions of wrong and corruption. (Applause.) 

This convention stands between ninety millions 
of people and a thousand monopolies. It stands 
between ninety millions of people who need a free 
and fair opportmiity and a thousand trusts that have 
special privileges. The great issue is to restore to the 
people equal opportunity, and, at the same time, to 
compel monopolies and trusts to proceed upon the 
same principle. This issue cannot be solved by a 
platform. Thousands of platforms will not solve it. 
The man on the platform alone can solve it. If he 
has the moral force and personal courage and mental 
ability, he will solve it because ninety millions of 
confiding men, woman and children stand behind 
him. (Applause.) Such is the meaning of the ap- 
pearance of the Governor of New Jersey at this time 
in the history of the nation. (Applause.) From the 
roar and struggle and strife preceding this convention 
and now involving it, there arises in majesty one char- 
acter, unsullied and unsoiled. He has made but one 
compact. That compact was with his conscience. He 



^^ WooDROw Wilson's Eloquence 

has made but one agreement. That agreement was 
with his country and his God. (Applause.) He is 
under but one obligation. That obligation is to 
the eternal principle of truth and right. It requires 
no sophistry to explain either his position or his 
character. He stands in the quenchless light of truth, 
a brave, fearless and patriotic soul. (Applause.) 

If Providence could spare us a Washington to 
lay deep in the granite of human need the founda- 
tions of the United States ; if Providence could spare 
us a Jefferson to give form and vitality to the most 
splendid democracy the sun ever shone upon; if 
Providence could spare us a Lincoln to unite these 
States in impregnable unity and brotherhood, New 
Jersey appeals to the patriotism and good sense of 
this convention to give to the country the services 
of the distinguished Governor of New Jersey, that 
the doors of opportunity may again be opened wide 
to every man, woman and child under the Stars and 
Stripes, so that, to use his own matchless phrase, 
"their energies may be released intelligently, that 
peace, justice and prosperity may reign." (Applause.) 

New Jersey appreciates her deliverance. New 
Jersey appreciates the great constructive results of 
her Governor's efforts during the past two years, but 
New Jersey appreciates more than that the honor 
which she now has, through her freely chosen repre- 
sentatives sitting before me, of placing before this 
convention, as a candidate for the presidency of the 
United States, the seer and philosopher of Princeton, 
the "Princeton schoolmaster," Woodrow Wilson. 
(Applause.) 



Speecli of Hon. Jolm W. Wescott 

AttonieT-j-General of New Jerseij 
Nominating 

Woodrow Wilson 

PresiJeut of tke United States 

for Re-election 

at tke Democratic Convention 

at Saint Loiiis, Jmie, 1916 



Prophecy is fuimied. The eternal verities of 
righteousness have prevailed. Undismayed by the 
calamities of war, unmoved by vituperation and vain 
declamation, holding to the pure altar of truth, the 
schoolmaster is statesman, the statesman financier, 
the financier emancipator, the emancipator pacifica- 
tor, the pacificator the moral leader of democracy. 

The nation is at work. The nation is at peace. 
The nation is accomplishing the destiny of democracy. 
Four years ago the nation was not at work. With 
resources boundless, with a hundred million people 
eager to achieve and do, commerce languished, indus- 
tries halted, men were idle. The country struggled 
in the toils of an inadequate financial system. Credit 

[ 95 ] 



96 WooDKOw Wilson's Eloquence 

was at the mercy of piracy-. The small business man 
was bound hand and foot. Panic hung like a storm 
cloud over the business world. 

Now bursting granaries, teeming factories, 
crowded railways and overladen ships distribute 
wealth and comfort to uncounted millions the world 
over. Production outruns the means of distribution. 
The parallel of American prosperity is not found 
in industrial history; nor is it causeless. It did not 
descend, like a merciful accident, from heaven. It 
is not due to the devastations of a revised tariff. It 
is not the result of destructive legislation. It can- 
not be attributed to the manufacture of war materials, 
constituting a bare two per centum of the volume 
of national bu-siness. War is destruction, not produc- 
tion. War curtails international trade. War depresses 
industrial energy. When the European cataclysm 
struck the world, moratoria fell like a blight upon 
many of the neutral nations, but not upon the United 
States. 

There stands the astounding phenomenon of 
American prosperity. What is its explanation ? The 
Euclid of financial theory worked to a demonstration 
measures for the country's relief 1 He promptly put 
into effect the legislative expression of a great pro- 
gram. He did not talk. He did things. He dynamited 
the monetary dams and let credit flow to the remotest 
corners of the land, its spray dashing even upon 
foreign shores. (Applause.) He released the nation's 
resources and set the energies of all men free to 
exploit them. He destroyed commercial slavery. He 
struck off its shackles. The prosperity of the nation 



WooDKow Wilson's Eloquence ^^ 

is the product of statesmanship and financial genius. 
American credit is now limited only by its own 
honesty and capacity. The cause being undisturbed, 
the effects must remain. The schoolmaster is states- 
man, the statesman is financier, the financier is eman- 
cipator. With Lincoln, the emancipator of the chattel 
slave, he will live forever as the emancipator of the 
commercial slave. (Applause.) 

The nation is at peace in a world at war. America 
is confronted with appalling realities. It is not the 
part of wisdom to play with phantoms, deal in riddles, 
or seek to entertain the national imagination with the 
legerdemain of language. To build words mountain 
high as the throne of vanity and ambition should not 
be an American pastime. An attempt to catch the 
presidency by phrases is the work of folly. The 
function of a sounding brass and tinkling cymbal is 
not germane to the tragic conditions of the world. 
When the fate of millions is at stake, it is not the 
part of any man to stack the cards. With civilization 
in peril, the sphinx becomes an anachronism. With 
the whole world tense and anxious, patriotic advice 
and suggestion are of more value than abuse and 
defamation. Speculation wilts in the blaze of truth. 
Abusive phraseology shrivels before the relentless 
fact. Honesty is the commanding quality of a free 
and patriotic American. (Applause.) 

What are the realities that face us? In Mexico 
exist the potentialities of civilization. In her wealth, 
her history, her schools, her religion, her needs, her 
very suffering and patriotism lie the indestructible 
seeds of progress. To have conquered Mexico would 



^s WooDKow Wilson's Eloquence 

have seated death at the American fireside. It would 
have destroyed our prosperity and added hundreds 
of millions of taxation to the burdens of the nation. 
It would have planted distrust and hatred of the 
United States in every South American republic. It 
would have forfeited the respect of the world. It 
would have substituted the tenets of Imperialism for 
the principles of Americanism. It would have pros- 
tituted the bravery and patriotism of American arms 
to the greed and avarice of concessionaires. It would 
have robbed the United States of the grandeur of her 
mission amongst the nations of the earth. It would 
have made might right and repudiated the doctrines 
of Christianity. It would have ignored the funda- 
mental conceptions of moral progress and denied the 
right of fifteen millions of people to govern them- 
selves. (Applause.) Ambition and greed were 
prepared to sacrifice America and all that America 
stands for, in order to acquire the wealth of Mexico. 
The diplomacy of "watchful waiting" averted these 
calamities and preserved in their original purity the 
principles of American freedom and justice. "Watch- 
ful waiting" repudiated the brutal dictum of science 
that the weak must go down before the strong. Help 
Mexico lest over her bloody grave are sown the 
dragon's teeth of our own destruction. (Applause.) 
"War with any European nation would have set 
the whole world aflame and stopped the march of 
progress for a century. "Would any one have had it 
so in order to affirm a "virile Americanism"? Is a 
"virile Americanism" bloodshed, destruction, the 
horrors of war and its uncertainties? The substance 



WooDROw Wilson's Eloquence ^^ 

of civilization is the arts, the sciences, literature, 
philosophy, industry, the domestic virtues, freedom, 
religion and peace. But this is the substance of 
American nationalism. This is the virility of Ameri- 
canism. It knows no national boundaries. It yet 
lives in the trenches and broken homes of Europe 
and pervades its very thrones. Therefore, America 
lives in the trenches and broken homes of Europe 
and its thrones. The stupendous conflagration is 
consuming the errors of statesmen and dynasties; it 
is not consuming the substance of civilization. Civil- 
ization is a unity. War with Europe would have cut 
asunder the moral forces that bind the nations and 
left an age of darkness, anarchy and despair. Stand- 
ing on the immutable foundations of such Ameri- 
canism, the schoolmaster and statesman, with con- 
summate skill, a skill that commands the admiration 
of the world, directs the forces of civilization, not 
with arms, but with reason and moral pressure against 
the excesses of a belligerent world. With preter- 
natural poise and clearness of vision, he is piloting 
America through the rushing storm. Who can deny 
the existence of a moral design in the universe ? Who 
now can question its fulfillment ? Who now can close 
his eyes to the destiny of democracy to make the 
principles of civilization dominant, to bring the war- 
ring nations of the earth together in lasting peace? 
The passions of men die. The truth lives. America 
has called to Europe ; Europe is responding in terms 
of a revitalized civilization. The snblimest picture 
in civil history is that of a plain American citizen 
manoeuvring with the weapons of reason and human- 



100 WooDROW "Wilson's Eloquence 

ity against the navies and armies of the contending 
nations, and bringing them in accord with the princi- 
ples of international law. (Applause.) The American 
standard of peace and justice now floats on the sea. 
It is unfurling over the trenches of the struggling 
nations. From the vantage ground of imperishable 
Americanism the matchless craft of a real pacifist has 
not only avoided all war, but is leading the world in 
the ways of peace. What is peace but the assertion 
of moral progress? What is the assertion of moral 
progress but the indestructible civilization of Europe 
and America? From the smoldering ruins of a thou- 
sand cities, over the graves of millions of brave men, 
out of the blackness of the battle smoke, arising from 
the obscurities of national passions, already the 
peoples of the earth recognize the dim outlines, grow- 
ing ever more distinct, of the composite soul of 
America in the patient and humane wisdom of the 
world's real pacificator, (Applause.) Of what avail 
all the wealth of our beloved land if it had been 
consumed in the destructiveness of war ? What avail 
the travail of human progress for ten thousand years 
had not the schoolmaster and statesman been pacifi- 
cator ? His achievement is so vast that ambitious men 
are blind to its reality. But the plain millions, of all 
creeds and nationalities, recognize in it the imperish- 
able glories of a Christian civilization. It glorifies 
the peasant and king alike. The schoolmaster is 
statesman, the statesman is financier, the financier is 
emancipator, the emancipator is the pacificator of the 
world. 



WooDEOw Wilson's Elo quence ^^^^ 

Thus is the nation accomplishing the destiny of 
democracy. The commanding fact of the modern 
age is the spread of intelligence. The schoolhouse 
has conquered ignorance. The printing press has 
transformed the purposes and capacities of man. 
Education has qualified him for a better existence. 
The Bible has made him a moralist. Men know that 
the world is big enough to support the human family 
in peace and comfort. Men know that the great 
problem of peace and comfort is not yet solved. They 
know that it cannot be solved by the savagery of 
war. They know that its solution is obtainable only 
in conditions of peace, reason and a practical moral- 
ity. This state of knowledge is the crowning achieve- 
ment of progress. (Applause.) 

The American experiment of seK-government has 
stood the test. The achievements of the American 
system are known of all men and felt throughout 
the world. The United States is the world's asylum. 
Here all races, all conditions, all creeds are assimi- 
lated, helped, elevated, and men are made into self- 
governing men. In America justice has made its 
greatest progress, because it is progress in which all 
men have a part. That form of government which 
affords the fullest opportunity for happiness and 
comfort is destined to be the universal form. Such 
is the resistless syllogism of progress. War cannot 
stop its inevitable march. The opinion of all men 
is more potential than the opinion of one man. The 
best opinion of the best men, by the force of example 
and mutuality of interest, becomes the opinion of all 



102 WooDRow Wilson's Eloquence 

men. American opinion is embodied in a man of 
peace. American opinion is marching through the 
world. ( Applause. ) 

When the Imperialism of Europe cast the iron 
dice of destiny, America threw the moral dice of 
destiny. America staked the principles of her justice. 
There they stand in untarnished integrity in the gaze 
of a stricken world. The intelligence of men grasps 
the meaning of America. Her example will readjust 
the relations of men everywhere. The aspirations of 
men are for freedom. Men and women can and 
should rule themselves. The day when they rule 
themselves war will disappear. The hand of Divinity 
has so written it in the needs and necessities of 
humanity made in Its image. 

America, prosperous, peaceful, blessed, is so be- 
cause the inscrutable purposes of God intended it. 
The contrast between Europe in flames and suffering 
and the United States peaceful and prosperous is 
the divine contrast. By saving the American system 
civilization is saved. The peace of America demon- 
strates the folly of war. The principles of democracy 
furnish the means of avoiding and preventing war. 
The universal intelligence of men decrees that the war 
now devastating Europe shall be the last war. It will 
end in the world's League of Peace. (Applause.) 

Sons of America, keep unsullied the sacred shrine 
of peace, through whose portals will yet pass arm in 
arm the crowned head and the humble peasant in 
silent worship of God. 

Out of the ruins and sufferings of the present 
conflict will arise a temple of justice whose dome will 



WooDKOw Wilson's Eloquence ^^^ 

be the blue vault of heaven ; its illuminants the eternal 
stars; its pillars the everlasting hills; its ornaments 
the woods and bountiful fields ; its music the rippling 
rills, the song of birds, the laughter of happy child- 
hood; its diapason the roar of mills and the hum of 
industry; its votaries the peoples of the earth; its 
creed, on which hangs all the law and the prophets, 
"Love thy neighbor as thyself." Above its altars 
in ineffaceable color will live eternally the vision of 
its artificer. (Applause.) 

Therefore, my fellow countrymen, not I, but his 
deeds and achievements; not I, but the spirit and 
purposes of America; not I, but the prayers of just 
men ; not I, but civilization itself, nominates to 
succeed himself to the presidency of the United 
States, to the presidency of a hundred million free 
people, bound in impregnable union, the scholar, the 
statesman, the financier, the emancipator, the pacifica- 
tor, the moral leader of democracy, Woodrow Wilson, 
(Great demonstration, lasting forty minutes.) 



